Did majority X owner Elon Musk share a public message on July 30, 2024, that users of the social-media platform would be punished for calling supporters of former President Donald Trump weird? No, that's not true: As of this publication, no such post was available on Musk's verified X profile, and an archive of his profile page did not reflect that such a post had ever been made. Furthermore, the post in question shows several signs of being fabricated.
A version of the claim appeared in a post on X on July 30, 2024 (archived here). The claim showed a screenshot of a supposed post published by Musk on the same day. The alleged post by Musk read:
"Weird" is being used as a slur against Trump supporters, and it will not be tolerated on this platform. Trump supporters should not have to face ridicule for their beliefs.
Any harassment of Trump supporters using the term "Weird" will be punished.
This is how the post appeared on X at the time of the publication of this fact check:
(Source: X screenshot taken Weds July 31 03:37:00 2024 UTC)
As of this writing, no such post was available on Musk's X verified profile (archived here), and an advanced keyword search on X also returned no relevant results (archived here).
Lead Stories found on X several versions of the claim above -- here, here, here and here, for example. They shared a screengrab of the supposed post, rather than reshared the post directly to the platform, which indicates that the post may have been fabricated. None of the posts linked above included an original URL to Musk's supposed post.
There are other indications that the post may have been fabricated. Lead Stories compared the post in question (below left) with a genuine post from Musk's account shared on July 29, 2024 (archived here). Screenshots of this genuine post, taken on both mobile and desktop versions of the platform, appear in the middle and on the right below.
(Source: Lead Stories/X screengrab compilation taken Wed Jul 31 17:09:19 2024 UTC)
Perhaps the biggest tell that the post is fabricated is its lack of the X logo. Musk's verified account on X is marked by the X logo and the blue verification check to the right of his name. The post in question does not include the X logo, which suggests that it is either not from Musk's verified account or has been fabricated.
The authentic mobile and desktop versions of Musk's account also include a "Subscribe" button. The supposed Musk post does not. It also shows an additional space between the "·" and the "952 Views."
To trace the supposed Musk post, Lead Stories also searched the Wayback Machine - Internet Archive database, which shows all the dates it copied Musk's X profile page. The post in question was not shown anywhere in the July 30, 2024, archival pages.
Next, Lead Stories searched Google's cached pages. According to the web tool TweetDelete (archived here), when Google comes across a website or page, it takes a screenshot known as a cached link. A search through Google's cached links (archived here) yielded no relevant results.
Finally, Lead Stories did a search, using keywords, in the Google News archive of thousands of reliable information sites. That search, which can be seen here, found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the claim.
The claim appeared after Vice President Kamala Harris and some of her Democratic allies began branding the Trump campaign as "weird," according to a July 30, 2024, article published by the Associated Press (archived here).
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims related to Elon Musk or Donald Trump can be found here and here.
