10 of Elon Musk's Biggest Controversies: 'Strange Comment' About Taylor Swift, Biden-Harris Assassination Statement and More

Elon Musk went through a tumultuous process of acquiring Twitter, now X, before ultimately completing the $44 billion deal in October 2022.

Following his takeover, Musk immediately fired top executives and laid off approximately 80 percent of the social networking site's staff. He confirmed the reduction in his interview with BBC, saying X was down to 1,500 employees.

"This is not a caring [or] uncaring situation. It's like, if the whole ship sinks, then nobody's got a job," said Musk.

The public slammed the SpaceX mogul as his moves fueled hate speech concerns on the platform.

In June 2018, 12 Thai boys and their football coach got trapped in a flooded Tham Luang cave in Thailand, immediately becoming headlines of global news organizations. The Tesla CEO offered to assist in the rescue mission by providing his mini-submarine but was turned down.

On X, he said he would create a video to prove that his submarine would have successfully rescued everyone, adding, "Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it."

Musk aimed the insult at British cave explorer Vern Unsworth, who called the tech mogul's attempt to help a "PR stunt."

Unsworth said in an interview, "It just had absolutely no chance of working. He had no conception of what the cave passage was like. The submarine, I believe, was about 5ft 6in long, rigid, so it wouldn't have gone round corners or round any obstacles."

The diver later sought $190 million in damages as the tweet allegedly damaged his reputation. A U.S. Jury ruled in favor of Musk, saying the 53-year-old Musk Foundation president did not defame Unsworth.

"Why they want to kill Donald Trump?" one asked on X after the possible second assassination attempt on the former president.

Meanwhile, Musk responded, "No one is even trying to assassinate [Joe] Biden/Kamala [Harris]."

The White House released a statement afterward, criticizing Musk's reckless post.

"Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible," read the statement from the president's office.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Musk unceasingly commented about the global health issue.

In March 2020, he called the panic over the virus "dumb" before he revealed that his companies were working on ventilators. In the same month, he falsely claimed that children were essentially immune to the virus and slammed people for overreacting to the pandemic.

Musk also spread false information when he promoted a malaria drug as a potential treatment for the novel coronavirus.

"Had near fatal case of falciparum," he tweeted. "Would've died for sure if not for chloroquine. Doesn't mean it works for C19, but maybe better than nothing."

Musk, who now has 12 known children with three different women, stirred the pot when he announced the unusual names of some of his kids.

In 2020, he and Grimes named their son X Æ A-12, breaking California's law that prevents the use of numbers in official legal names. He later renamed their first kid X Æ A-Xii.

However, Musk generated media buzz again when he and Grimes updated Exa Dark Sideræl's name to "Y" or "why?"

After Trump and Harris' first presidential debate before the election, Taylor Swift officially endorsed the vice president on Instagram and signed her message, "Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady," referencing J.D. Vance's controversial "childless cat ladies" remark.

In response to the "Cruel Summer" singer's announcement, Musk wrote, "Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life."

The investor attracted condemnation online, with people calling him out for his "creepy behavior." Even his daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson slammed him on social media.

"I saw ‘the tweet.' Heinous incel nonsense is in fact heinous incel nonsense," said Wilson. "I don't really have anything to add to it, it's just abhorrent. That much is obvious and if you don't see how then you're part of the problem. I would just like to say to my audience members, don't let people talk to you like that. It's disgusting, it's belittling and incredibly sexist. You deserve better."

The tech billionaire found himself in hot water for allegedly stopping Ukraine's secret attack on Russia's naval fleet by telling his engineers not to turn on the Starlink satellite network over Crimea.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said, "As a result, civilians, children are being killed. This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego. However, the question still remains: why do some people so desperately want to defend war criminals and their desire to commit murder? And do they now realize that they are committing evil and encouraging evil?"

Musk responded to the report, dismissing the claims SpaceX deactivated the satellite.

"There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol," he explained. "The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation."

In 2022, Musk's X banned the accounts of top news organizations' prominent journalists, such as Aaron Rupar, The New York Times' Ryan Mac and CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, among others. According to the businessman, the reporters violated the website's rules on sharing information.

"The impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising. Twitter's increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter," a spokesperson for CNN said.

Meanwhile, a representative for The New York Times shared, "Neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of the journalists' accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action."

The European Union launched a probe into X over hate speech and the potential spread of terrorist and violent content following Hamas' attack on Israel. Thierry Breton, the EU's industry chief, said the block sent a formal request for information since troubling posts had not been removed from the website despite warnings.

In response to the investigation, Musk said, "Our policy is that everything is open and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports. Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them."