Did Elon Musk leave his son behind while exiting the stage at a January 2025 rally? No, that's not true: A video clip circulating on social media to support this assertion was edited and shortened to suggest Musk left his son behind. Uncut video footage of Musk's exit off-stage shows that he paused, turned around, and waited for his son to catch up.
The clip appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on February 23, 2025, with the caption:
Elon Musk walks off and leaves his 4 year old son wandering off stage by himself. This clip legitimately disturbs--and saddens--me.
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Feb 24 14:49:46 2025 UTC)
The clip posted on X is 11 seconds long and shows Musk walking down the stage steps, waving to the crowd, and walking ahead of his son. Audio, which appears to be added, features what sounds like a child's laughter and a voice saying:
"Wait! You... you're leaving your little boy!"
Below is a live embed of the post on X:
The so-called genius forgot his human shield son. What a loving father. pic.twitter.com/p4Pvy4bIXk
-- Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) February 23, 2025
Another 20-second-long clip (archived here) was posted on X on February 24, 2025. It showed Musk stopping to wait for his son multiple times. A live embed of that video is shown below:
I was there. Fuck this guy pic.twitter.com/ut156pmDYQ
-- Rebecca G (@Smoke_and_Oakum) February 24, 2025
The Lead Stories composite image below shows stills from the 00:02, 00:11, and 00:14 second marks in the latter video clip. The three frames show Musk pausing at the top of the steps to call his son back to him, Musk turning his head to face his son, and Musk cheering as his son runs to rejoin him.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with X screenshots taken Mon Feb 24 17:14:46 2025 UTC)
This footage was taken during the January 19, 2025, "Make America Great Again Victory Rally" on the eve of Inauguration Day, at the Capitol One Arena in Washington D.C. Musk brought his son, X Æ A-Xii, who is called X for short, onstage during the appearance.
Lead Stories cross-referenced other angles of the rally posted by news outlets to confirm that Musk indeed waited for his son.
A C-SPAN video of the rally published January 19, 2025, features a wide-angle view of the whole stage, which captured the seemingly impromptu moment at 02:09:24 hours. This is when President Donald Trump called Musk to the stage. About six seconds after Musk entered, waving to the crowd, X ran across the stage to his father. Musk said:
Thank you Mr. President. Sorry, Little X just followed me on the stage here. He's a very enthusiastic supporter.
ABC (archived here) posted another video of Musk at the rally from a different angle. At the 02:10 mark (pictured below), Musk is shown speaking for about a minute and then leaving the stage with his son behind him.
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Feb 24 18:32:01 2025 UTC)
At the time of this writing, Newsweek had also investigated this claim.
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Elon Musk can be found here.
