The Secret Service has launched a probe into an X post by Elon Musk in which he tweeted that “no one is even trying” to kill Kamala Harris or Joe Biden.
The tech billionaire deleted the post on his X platform and passed it off as a “joke.” However, the White House did not find it funny and instead called it “irresponsible.”
“Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about,” the White House said in a statement. Now the Secret Service is involved.
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Musk’s post came soon after Sunday’s second assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life. Trump’s would-be shooter was discovered hiding in the bushes with a gun trained on the former president while he was playing golf in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Responding to an X post asking why anyone would want to kill Trump, Musk remarked, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden or Kamala.”
Musk, a fervent supporter of the GOP presidential nominee, included a raised eyebrow emoji in his post.
“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 all that hilarious as a post on X,” Musk wrote after deleting the tweet.
“Turns out that jokes are way less funny if people don't know the context and the delivery is in plain text,” he continued in a follow up post.
Musk has regularly posted messages critical of the Harris-Walz campaign since throwing his weight behind Trump’s attempt to return to the White House.
The Secret Service said it is “aware” of Musk’s since-deleted post.
“As a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence. We can say, however, that the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our protectees,” the agency added in a statement to the BBC.
