Elon Musk is facing criticism after saying that he became involved with politics because his daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson is a transgender woman.
On Sunday, the right-wing billionaire responded “true” to an X post highlighting Wilson’s recent modeling campaign that claimed that “if not for Vivian, Elon Musk never would have gotten involved, never would have purchased Twitter, Kamala Harris would be President and the Left-wing would have total instrumental control over the construction of Skynet.”
Musk, 54, has previously been public about blaming the “woke mind virus” for Wilson’s coming out as trans and also inspiring his own far-right shift, which saw him become one of President Donald Trump’s biggest donors and briefly made him the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
However, Wilson has denied that her father’s political aspirations have anything to do with her, especially since the two have been estranged since she came out in 2020.
She told Teen Vogue in 2025: “It’s such a convenient narrative, that the reason he turned right is because I’m a f****** t*****, and that’s just not the case. That’s not what that does to people. Him going further on the right, and I’m going to use the word ‘further’ — make sure you put ‘further’ in there — is not because of me. That’s insane.”
Following Musk’s post, social media users quickly criticized the X owner for pointing the finger at his own daughter once again.
“Elon is a narcissist. very common for narcissists to humiliate and embarrass their child (always the first born),” one X user wrote. “My guess is he scapegoated ‘Vivian.’”
Another wrote: “Wow nice, way to blame the victim again.” A third person added, in part, “He couldn’t control his child so he decided to try and control the whole country.”
Wilson is the eldest of Musk’s six children with his first wife, Justine Musk. They were divorced in 2008.
After Musk misgendered Wilson in an interview with Jordan B. Peterson in 2024 and said that she was “killed by the woke mind virus,” Wilson spoke out against her estranged father in her first public interview with NBC News.
“I think he was under the assumption that I wasn’t going to say anything and I would just let this go, unchallenged,” she said at the time. “Which I’m not going to do because if you’re going to lie about me, like, blatantly to an audience of millions, I’m not just gonna let that slide.”
In 2022, Wilson legally changed her name and said in court documents that she does not “wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”