Hours after what the FBI called a second assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump, Elon Musk wrote on his social media site — and then deleted it — a message suggesting it was odd that no one had tried to kill President Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mr Musk said the post about X was intended as a joke.
In response to a user who asked, “Why do they want to kill Donald Trump?” Musk, who supports the former president and frequently comments on the US presidential campaign, wrote, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” His message, which was screenshotted by X users, included a thinking face emoji.
Mr Musk deleted the post after it immediately sparked outrage. X claims to have more than 197 million subscribers on the platform, which he bought in 2022.
“Well, one lesson I learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be hilarious in a post on X,” he said in a follow-up post Monday morning. “It turns out jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the message is written in plain text,” he wrote in another post.
The US Secret Service said on Sunday that it opened fire on a gunman at Mr Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while the former president was playing. A suspect was later arrested. The incident follows another in July, in which Mr Trump was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin while he was holding a rally in Pennsylvania. The gunman was killed by police.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has earned a reputation as a bold plutocrat who is unconstrained by social conventions when it comes to expressing his opinions and letting his followers know what he thinks. His power and wealth have made him relatively immune to criticism, and his outspokenness has made him a hero to many on the right who oppose what they call political correctness.
Several of his recent posts about the election have drawn criticism. Last week, he amplified false claims from the right that immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. And after music superstar Taylor Swift said last week that she would vote for Ms Harris, signing her endorsement “Childless Cat Lady” in reference to comments by Mr Trump’s running mate, Mr Musk appeared to jokingly offer to impregnate Ms Swift, writing: “Alright Taylor… you win… I will give you a child and protect your cats with my life.”
