A Democratic congressman poked fun at Elon Musk’s aborted video game live stream Thursday, saying the incident is proof that “he is the most unlikable person in this country.”
During the short-lived event last weekend, Musk faced a brutal campaign of cyberbullying from fellow Path of Exile 2 players in the game’s chat function.
One user asked Musk if he could “please jerk off mr trump so he dies of a heart attack”—the first of what would turn out to be many rude messages endured by the world’s richest man.
Dozens of other users with names such as ELON_IS_A_PEEDOPHILE and ELON_MUSK_IS_PATHETIC quickly swept into the chat chat to tell him “YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND YOU WILL DIE ALONE” and “YOU WILL ALWAYS FEEL INSECURE AND IT WILL NEVER GO AWAY.”
After sitting in stony-faced silence for more than an hour, the Tesla CEO finally ended his live stream.
On Thursday, California Rep. Robert Garcia said that the circumstances behind Musk’s rage-quit helped the Trump-aligned billionaire realize the true level of hate that Americans have for him.
“The man can’t even go and play video games anymore because the people he’s playing with are all harassing him online,“ Garcia said. ”And so he himself is feeling more and more isolated. He’s posting less on X. He’s distancing himself a little bit more from the administration, and I think that he understands that he’s the most unlikable person in this country."
Garcia also cited as evidence of Musk’s unpopularity his costly involvement in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election a few weeks ago—one which saw voters reject his chosen candidate. Since then, the congressman said, Musk “knows that he’s toxic.”
Garcia’s comment came during a press conference where he and other Democrats argued that Musk is legally barred from serving in his current role of special government employee beyond May 30.
In a letter to Donald Trump on Wednesday, 77 lawmakers wrote in part: “Considering the repeated violations of the law by Musk and your administration, we demand an immediate public statement from your administration making clear that Musk will resign and surrender all decision making authority, as required by law, by May 30th.”
They added that Musk “is continuing to enrich himself and break ethics laws.”
As the informal head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has worked to curtail the regulatory power of federal agencies—some of which are investigating his companies.
At the same time, several companies of his—like Tesla and SpaceX—receive hefty government subsidies.
Trump told reporters last week that Musk will likely be leaving the administration in “a few months.”
