Once upon a time, a gossip website astutely observed that Elon Musk is “on a quest to out-Howard Hughes in the messy billionaire department.”
The observation from the D-listed site came long before Musk made the stunning announcement Thursday that he wanted to buy Twitter, the social media platform the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur has used to become an infamous provocateur and international celebrity, whose private life is covered by gossip sites.
Back in August 2018, the world’s richest man went on Twitter to say he was mulling taking the Tesla company private at $420 per share. The observation from D-listed came amid a bizarre scenario: Rapper Azealia Banks alleged on Instagram that Musk was under the influence of a psychedelic drug when he posted that Aug. 7, 2018 tweet. Banks said she should know, because she had been staying at Musk’s home to “make music” with Musk and his then-girlfriend, indie-pop star Grimes.
Messy, right? Especially because Musk’s tweet led to a fraud investigation by the Securities Exchange commission, which Musk eventually settled.
But Musk’s $420 tweet and the idea of Banks being his houseguest are far from the only bizarre scenarios, controversies and outrageous situations Musk has been involved in in his high-flying life and career. Like Hughes, Musk has shown little hesitation in letting his personal issues get mixed up with his business concerns. And unlike more cautious business leaders, Musk’s celebrity and fervent fandom rests on his willingness to come across as playful, prolific, audacious and seemingly unfiltered.
Now, Musk has launched his latest audacious move — to buy Twitter. The announcement has sparked more controversy for the South African billionaire. Some wonder if he’s just posturing, given his propensity for grand and sometimes preposterous schemes that don’t come to fruition. Others wonder how he would oversee the exchange of information and debate on Twitter, which he calls “the de facto town square.”
Whatever Musk is thinking, he’s offered the world no shortage of controversial moments, both on Twitter and IRL. Here are just eight from the past five years.
Amber Heard drama
Musk may be dealing with his Twitter takeover at the same time he makes headlines for testifying in this year’s biggest and most salacious celebrity trial: Johnny Depp’s defamation suit against ex-wife Amber Heard.
Heard has reportedly asked Musk, whom she dated on-off from late 2016 to 2017, to testify on her behalf in the case, People reported. Depp is suing the “Aquaman” actor over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed she wrote about surviving domestic violence. Heard never named Depp in the op-ed, but she famously accused the actor of domestic violence during their marriage, which ended in 2016. Depp denies ever abusing Heard.
In 2020, Depp lost a U.K. libel case against a British tabloid that called him a “wife beater.” But during the case, Musk’s name came up, when the actor alleged that Heard began an affair with the billionaire shortly after she and Depp married in 2015.
A representative for Musk has said that “Elon and Amber didn’t start seeing each other until May 2016, and even then, it was infrequent. Their relationship didn’t become romantic until some time later.”
Musk’s name came up again during opening arguments this week in Depp’s defamation case, Yahoo reported. Heard’s lawyers suggested that Depp was “obsessed” with the Tesla CEO, eliciting what appeared to be a stifled laugh from the Hollywood star.
Musk’s insult of cave rescuer
Intrigued like so many others in the saga of 12 boys trapped in a cave in Thailand in 2018, Musk sought to get involved. He sent a team of engineers and a small submarine to Thailand to aid in the effort, but they weren’t used.
Vernon Unsworth, an experienced British cave explorer who was involved in the successful rescue, dismissed Musk’s offer of help. Unsworth told CNN that the submarine Musk delivered was a “PR stunt,” adding that he should “stick his submarine where it hurts.”
Unsworth’s comments drew the ire of Musk. In a series of tweets, Musk said that Unsworth’s part-time residence in Thailand was “sus[picious]” and calling him “pedo guy.”
Musk eventually deleted the tweets and apologized to Unsworth. After Unsworth sued for defamation, Musk apologized again from the witness stand and contended, “I did not accuse Mr. Unsworth of being a pedophile.”
Musk managed to win the lawsuit after arguing that the term is a common insult in South Africa that is synonymous with “creepy old man (and) aimed at insulting one’s appearance and demeanor.”
Musk’s Joe Rogan Experience
During a sprawling, two-and-a-half hours conversation with podcaster Joe Rogan, Musk held forth on a range of topics, including the future of A.I. and climate change. The business leader also didn’t hesitate to have a toke when Rogan offered him a cigarette that Rogan said was laced with marijuana, perhaps as a way to laugh off his $420 Tesla stock plan. As if smoking a joint during a live podcast wasn’t weird enough, the CEO also took control of a Japanese samurai sword, and studied the blade for a moment.
The names he and Grimes gave to their children
When the famously unconventional couple couple welcomed their first child, a son in May 2020, they named him X Æ A-12 Musk. Even Gwyneth Paltrow thought the name was a bit off, which is saying something, considering that she named her daughter Apple.
As it turns out, under California law, no numbers are allowed in a person’s name, so the couple had to change it to: X Æ A-Xii. But at least Musk showed a sense of humor about his son’s name, saying during his monologue while hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 2021: “It’s pronounced cat running across keyboard.”
The couple, who have since broken up, continued their trend of odd baby-name choices. In December, Grimes revealed to a Vanity Fair reporter that they had together welcomed a baby girl, born via surrogate. She told a Vanity Fair writer that the baby girl’ full name is Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, or Y, for short.
Spreading COVID-19 conspiracies
One reason that some conservatives seem happy about Musk’s attempt to buy Twitter is that he, too, liked to engage in conspiracy theories about COVID-19 on Twitter. For example, in November 2020, he suggested that not everything was quite right about COVID testing, when he tweeted that he managed to get different results from four tests on the same day.
Early in the pandemic he was condemned in March 2020 when he tweeted: “The coronavirus panic is dumb.” He also tweeted that month that “maybe,” it was “worth considering chloroquine for C19.”
Mocking pronouns
Musk’s controversial Twitter use also drew fire when in 2020, he tweeted that “pronouns suck” — an apparent slight against nonbinary and transgender people who may put their pronouns in their bio to make conversation easier, Yahoo reported. Among the many on Twitter who took offense was Grimes, who responded, “I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a dall [sic]. I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your heart.”
Challenging Vladimir Putin to ‘single combat’
In a recent interview with Insider, Musk disputed the idea that he’s the world’s richest man, saying that this distinction belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But opposed to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Musk challenged Putin to “single combat.”
“I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat,” Musk tweeted last month, a term that refers to a person-to-person fight on a battlefield. “Stakes are Ukraine.”
Musk’s challenged prompted a Kremlin official to fire back, calling the Tesla boss a “weakling” and “little devil,” the New York Post reported. But Ukraine’s vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, came to Musk’s defense, tweeting: “I am sure that @elonmusk can send Putin to Jupiter.”
Musk may have bested Putin in other ways. After Russia launched its invasion, Musk agreed to the Ukrainian government’s request to provide Starlink internet terminals in case the country was cut off from landline connections.
Source: www.mercurynews.com