Elon Musk’s Post After Donald Trump Assassination Attempt Sparks Backlash

Elon Musk has faced backlash after writing, “No one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” following an apparent second assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
On Sunday evening, a shooter attempted to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, the FBI said. No injuries have been reported, according to the Associated Press, which cited a spokesperson for Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Following the attack, user @cb_doge on X, formerly Twitter, wrote, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump.” Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media site who supports Trump, replied, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”
Musk’s post, which appears to have been deleted, had been viewed 34.7 million times and liked 151,000 times by Monday morning.
The four most-liked responses to Musk’s post were all critical of the billionaire. User @AesPolitics1 wrote: “What the f*** is wrong with you? Do you think before you press post?” Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican representative from Illinois, wrote: “Dude I’m not kidding here, get help. This is unhinged and dangerous.” User @dogeofficialceo wrote, “Nobody should be trying to assassinate anyone.” And user @theliamnissan wrote, “Elon Musk is a threat to national security.”
The suspect in Sunday’s shooting, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, appears to have been motivated by frustration with Trump’s proposed policy for the war in Ukraine. X has since suspended Routh’s account.
In July, Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump by opening fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks injured the former president’s ear, killed one rallygoer, and wounded two others before Secret Service snipers shot him dead.
Elsewhere on X, users criticized Musk for his post, saying it could be interpreted as a provocation of violence against President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, both of whom have condemned Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt.
User @LakotaMan1, wrote, “Who else here feels that Elon Musk should be stripped of his security clearance, and U.S. citizenship and then deported back to his home nation of South Africa?”
Elizabeth de la Vega, a former federal prosecutor, wrote that Musk’s post would warrant a visit by the Secret Service.
“In all seriousness, as a former federal prosecutor, I can tell you that a statement like Elon Musk’s below DOES require an immediate visit by the U.S. Secret Service. That is the protocol in every similar situation.”
In two follow-up posts, Musk said his comments were intended as a joke. “Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X,” he wrote. “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text,” he added in a separate post.
While two gunmen have tried to assassinate the former president in the past two months, Musk’s claim that “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” is not true.
In August, the FBI arrested a man in Virginia after he allegedly made online threats about setting Harris on fire.
In June, Kuachua Xiong, a 27-year-old California man, was sentenced to two years in federal prison after threatening to kill Biden and Harris. In 2021, police pulled Xiong over in Iowa. He had a “hit list” and an AR-15 rifle in his trunk. He told police that he was driving across the country to the White House to photograph the landmark.
Last year, FBI agents shot and killed a 75-year-old Utah man while searching of his home after he had allegedly threatened online to assassinate Harris and to assassinate Biden on his visit to Utah.
Also in 2023, a 19-year-old Missouri man was arrested after allegedly ramming a U-Haul truck into barriers outside the White House. He was charged with multiple crimes, including threatening to kill the president.
In 2022, Secret Service agents arrested 37-year-old John Andrew Bazor Jr., from Alabama, on charges of making threats against Biden, including in a call to the White House in which he allegedly said, “I am coming to assassinate the president.”
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Update 09/16/2024 5:47 a.m. ET: This article’s headline was updated.