Photo-illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty
Elon Musk is a humorless man who has recently become a vocal supporter of Donald Trump. So naturally, when Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris shortly after Tuesday night’s debate, the billionaire X-owner looked for the scariest response possible. He found it, responding to Swift’s identification as a “childless cat lady” (a dig at Trump’s running mate, JD Vance) by offering, or perhaps threatening, to impregnate her.
It’s understandable that people are very focused on the “I’ll give you a child” part of this article. There’s a lot going on here. Elon Musk openly sexually harassed Swift on X for expressing a political opinion; he’s been accused of sexual misconduct before (which he denies). And this remark echoes other strange and troubling comments from the billionaire. Musk — who has fathered at least 12 children with three women — is obsessed with low birth rates, which has led him to propagate the “Great Replacement Theory,” a white supremacist conspiracy theory (though he says he doesn’t “buy into it”).
What you may have forgotten is that Musk’s response to Swift also has a racist undertone. At first glance, the line “protect your cats at the risk of my life” could be interpreted as Musk teasing Swift with a version of “I know you want a strong man to protect you and your beloved cats” in response to Swift’s quip about the “childless cat lady” and the appearance of one of her cats in her message of support.
But in reality, Musk was saying, “Taylor, I will protect your beloved cats from the immigrants who are trying to eat them.” We know that Elon Musk believes the baseless claims that Haitian immigrants are kidnapping and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. On Sunday, he helped spread the right’s new favorite conspiracy theory:
And during the debate, he retweeted this post complaining that the moderators had fact-checked the claim that Trump had shouted, “They eat dogs!”
On the other hand, Musk seems to endorse the idea that Swift’s message was just a joke:
So I guess we should all relax about one of the most powerful men in the world saying disgusting things about women and minorities!
