The White House condemned Elon Musk for tweeting “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” in response to user X who asked “Why do you want to kill Donald Trump?”
The president’s office issued a statement on Monday criticizing the “irresponsible” post, which was accompanied by a raised eyebrow emoji. The White House said: “Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible.” The statement added that there should be “no place for political violence or any kind of violence in our country.”
The Secret Service also said Monday it was aware of a post by the billionaire on the social media platform X. Musk, who owns the platform formerly known as Twitter, made the post after a man suspected of plotting to assassinate Donald Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach was arrested Sunday.
Musk, who is a Trump supporter, was quickly criticized by X users on the left and right, who said they were concerned that his words to his nearly 200 million X followers could incite violence against Biden and Harris.
The tech billionaire deleted the post, but not before the Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting current and former presidents, vice presidents and other notable officials, took notice.
“The Secret Service is aware of the social media post made by Elon Musk and, as a matter of standard practice, we do not comment on matters related to protective intelligence,” a spokesperson said in an email. “However, we can say that the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our protectees.”
The spokesman declined to say whether the agency had reached out to Musk, who appeared to suggest in subsequent posts that he had been joking.
“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 as funny as a post on X,” he later wrote. “It turns out jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the way you say it is in plain text.”
Harris, a Democrat running against Republican nominee Trump in the 2024 election, and Biden issued statements Sunday night expressing relief that Trump had not been hurt.