Elon Musk Deletes Tweet About Assassinations

After news broke Sunday about an apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Florida, Elon Musk responded in controversial fashion with a tweet that has since been deleted. Responding to a user who asked, "Why they want to kill Donald Trump?" Musk responded: "And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala," followed by a thinking-face emoji, reports the New York Times.

• Backlash: Criticism quickly ensued, notes the Hill. For example, conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg called the tweet "appalling and indefensible," while former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger wondered, "What is wrong with this guy?!"

• Initial defense: Musk initially defended the tweet amid demands he take it down, per CNN. "No one has even tried to do so is the point I'm making and no one will," he wrote. But when a supporter made the case that it was being misinterpreted, Musk acquiesced. "Fair enough," he wrote. "I don't want to do what they have done, even in jest."
• Just kidding: Musk deleted the tweet and followed up by saying it was a joke. "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 all that hilarious as a post on X," he wrote. In another, he said: "Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don't know the context and the delivery is plain text."

(More Elon Musk stories.)