Elon Musk Sparks Backlash After Incorrectly Saying His Child Was ‘Killed’
After the horror of losing a baby (his first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, died of SIDS in 2002 at just 10 weeks old), you would think Elon Musk would be a little more sensitive about the death of a child. But this is Elon Musk we’re talking about — and, apparently, he doesn’t give a damn about people’s feelings. Not least of all, his own child, who he incorrectly claimed was “killed” in a new interview. Yep — you read that right.
Let’s start at the beginning. The X owner is a dad of 12: in addition to Nevada, Musk shares twins Vivian and Griffin, born in 2004, and triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian, born in 2006, with ex-wife Justine Wilson. Musk is also dad to X Æ A-Xii (pronounced X Ash Archangel Twelve), born in 2020, Exa Dark Sideræl, born via surrogate in 2021, and Techno “Tau” Mechanicus, born in 2023, with Grimes. He shares twins Strider and Azure, born in 2021, and a baby born in 2024 with Shivon Zillis.
In a controversial interview with Daily Wire on Monday, the Tesla CEO said that his transgender daughter Vivian, who transitioned in 2022, was “killed by the woke-mind virus.”
“I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier,” the billionaire told psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson, using the 20-year-old’s deadname and incorrect gender, per Page Six. Musk claims that he was essentially deceived into signing documents to allow for the child’s medical gender reassignment.
“This is before I had any understanding of what was going on. COVID was going on, so there was a lot of confusion, and I was told Xavier might commit suicide if he doesn’t [make the change],” Musk continued, again insensitively referring to his daughter by her deadname.
Elsewhere in the interview, he said he “lost” his child and said again that he had been “tricked.”
“They call it ‘deadnaming’ for a reason,” he added. “The reason they call it ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead. My son Xavier is dead — killed by the woke-mind virus.”
The SpaceX founder added, “I vowed to destroy the woke-mind virus after that. And we’re making some progress.” The whole thing gives me chills in a bad way. He is the voice of pure evil, and the way he thinks of his own children is absolutely horrifying.
People took to X, formerly Twitter, to share their reactions to Musk’s statements. One person wrote, “Elon Musk just deadnamed his own trans daughter to hundreds of millions. He is exactly the kind of father so many trans people have had to run away from, hide from, stay closeted because of. He should be ashamed if he were human enough to feel shame.”
Someone else tweeted, “Elon musk is one of the clearest and most public examples of a man who believes he owns the lives of his children and who does not have unconditional love for his children. He decided to buy twitter and make him being a bad father all of our problems.”
“Elon Musk is an awful human being and an even worse parent,” another wrote. The bare minimum as a parent should be to support your own child and give them the basic dignity of respecting their name and privacy. It’s no wonder that Vivian wants nothing to do with her dad.
In June 2022, Vivian filed court documents in Los Angeles County to drop Musk from her last name and legally declare her gender identity. She now legally goes by Vivian Jenna Wilson. In the filing, the reason for the change was: “Gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”
Musk spoke out against his daughter in an Oct. 2022 interview with Financial Times, saying that Vivian wants to distance herself from him due to “neo-Marxists” at educational institutions, saying, “It’s full-on communism and a general sentiment that if you’re rich, you’re evil.”
In the awful interview, Musk said that his relationship with Vivian “may change” in the future, adding, “I have very good relationships with all the others. Can’t win them all.”
Of course, he doesn’t seem to be making any moves to repair his relationship with Vivian (and I’m willing to bet his latest idiotic comments aren’t going to help). Earlier this month, he announced he wants to move his SpaceX headquarters from California to Texas after Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law to block school districts from requiring teachers to tell parents if a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation changed. “This is the final straw,” Musk tweeted. “Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”
“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,” he added, although it’s unclear how bashing your own daughter publicly is “protecting” them in any way. He obviously doesn’t even know what that means!
If there’s any hope left in humanity, it’s the fact that so many people disagreed with Musk’s sentiments. Hopefully attitudes like this will raise awareness about why we need to protect kids in school and the transgender community in this country in general — even from the attacks of their own parents.
Before you go, check out these celebritieswho are parents of trans and non-binary kids.