Elon Musk’s anger over trans daughter triggered mission to ‘destroy the woke mind virus’

Elon Musk has once again suggested that his adult transgender daughter had no agency in deciding her own destiny, proclaiming in a new interview that she was “killed by the woke mind virus” after he was tricked into giving his consent for puberty blockers.

In an interview with controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, the world’s richest man also explained that his estrangement from his 20-year-old daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, triggered his mission to “destroy the woke mind virus.”

The Daily Wire interview comes a week after Musk announced his decision to move the headquarters of his companies  SpaceX and X out of California after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to prevent public school districts from requiring notification of parents if their child starts using different pronouns or identifies as a different gender from what’s on their school record.

In a broader sense, Musk also explained to Peterson that his aggravation with transgender rights and gender-affirming care coincided with his embrace of some aspects of the right-wing agenda — along with his new, enthusiastic support for Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign.

Notably, in his interview with Peterson, Musk did not admit that he may have had a role in his estrangement from his daughter. He certainly didn’t mention her headline-making move in 2022 to petition the court to legally change her name and to be recognized as a woman.

Wilson’s petition had also asked to no longer be related to her father “in any way, shape or form.” She is the daughter of Musk’s first wife, Justine Wilson, who once described the father of 12, by three separate women, as a difficult, controlling and patriarchal man to live with.

Perhaps in a sign of Musk’s controlling nature, he did not refer to his child as his daughter when talking to Peterson. Rather, he continued to refer to Wilson as his son and to use her “deadname.”

“I lost my son, essentially,” Musk said. “They call it ‘deadnaming’ for a reason. The reason they call it ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead. My son, Xavier, is dead — killed by the woke mind virus.”

Peterson brought up his own longstanding complaints about gender-affirming care to Musk after the two engaged in a wide-ranging conversation about religion, environmentalism, Musk’s childhood existential crisis, the billionaire’s opposition to unions and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, his mission to boost global birth rates and his view that Republicans now represent American ideals of meritocracy and personal freedom.

Like Musk, Peterson has drawn the ire of transgender rights activists for complaining about the use of gender-neutral pronouns. Musk first came under fire in July 2020, when he tweeted that “pronouns suck.” His partner at the time, the singer Grimes, was outraged, saying, “I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your heart.”

In Musk’s conversation with Peterson, the media personality reiterated his opposition to gender-confirmation surgery, saying the term itself is a euphemism for the “worst medical and psychological malpractice I’ve seen anywhere.”

Musk confirmed that his views on transgender people arose from his experience with his daughter, whom he continued to refer to as his son in the interview. The South African-born entrepreneur said, “I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier.”

“This is before I had any understanding of what was going on,” Musk continued. “COVID was going on, so there was a lot of confusion and I was told Xavier might commit suicide if he doesn’t … .”

At the mention of suicide, Peterson railed against the idea that transgender youth are at greater risk of suicide than other children, saying that underlying depression and anxiety cause higher suicide rates in transgender youth than gender dysphoria.

With this statement, Peterson showed he had no use for surveys from organizations like the Trevor Project, a suicide-prevention nonprofit focused on LGBTQ+ young people. In a 2024 survey on the mental health of LGBTQ+ young people in the United States, ages 13 to 24, the Trevor Project reported that 39% of LGBTQ+ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. This number included 46% of transgender and nonbinary young people.

But like Peterson, Musk appeared to discount such surveys away by saying that “almost every child goes through some kind of identity crisis.” He also asserted that it’s “very possible” for adults to manipulate a child having an identity crisis to believe “they are the wrong gender” and, therefore, need “sterilization drugs” or “double mastectomies.”

Describing the gender transition process as “incredibly evil” and “macabre,” Musk said it was never explained to him the puberty blockers were “actually just sterilization drugs.”

Thereafter, Musk said he had made it his mission to stamp out gender-confirmation procedures for children in the wake of his daughter’s transition and estrangement. Back in 2022, he also complained to the Financial Times that his daughter’s decision to distance herself from was caused by “neo-Marxists” at educational institutions.

“I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that,” Musk told Peterson.  “And we’re making some progress.”

Perhaps Musk’s idea of progress is relocating the headquarters for SpaceX and his social media platform X from California to Texas. Musk made the move over Newsom’s signing of AB 1955. In a post on X last week, Musk cited several criticisms he has of California and of doing business in San Francisco, but he said that the new state law on transgender notification policies was “the final straw,” saying they are an attack on “both families and companies.”

“I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children,” Musk told Peterson.

As for Musk’s support for Trump in the 2024 election, he insisted that he doesn’t subscribe to the “cult of personality” that surrounds Trump. He said, “We’ve got a choice of administrations. We have to pick one.”

Musk acknowledged that there are “flaws on both sides.” Once, he viewed the Democratic Party as being the party for “meritocracy, personal freedom and free speech.” But he believes the Republicans now represent those values, while also railing against DEI policies, which he said are “another form of racism and sexism.”

On July 13, Musk let the world know he was endorsing Trump because he was impressed by the way Trump reacted, shortly after he was injured in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania campaign rally. On X, Musk shared a post showing Trump with his fist raised in the air as Secret Service agents tried to rush him off the stage. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote. 

In the past, Musk had given small amounts of money to candidates from both parties and used to primarily be a Democratic donor, CNN reported. But he has said for several years that Democrats have moved too far to the left for him to support many of its candidates.

In his interview with Peterson, for example, the maker of electric vehicles and supporter of the Paris climate accord referred to himself as environmentalist but said the environmental movement had “gone too far” with its view that humans are “a blight on the earth.”

After Musk’s endorsement of Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had gone all in for Trump, to the point that he had made a pledge to support the former president’s campaign by committing $45 million a month to a new super PAC. However, in his interview with Peterson, Musk denied donating $45 million to Trump. “That’s simply not true,” he said. However, he acknowledged that he had started the super PAC.