Did a viral image show a real CNN report about tech billionaire Elon Musk being hospitalized on August 4, 2025? No, that's not true: Searches across Google and CNN produced zero confirmation that the network ever published such an article on its website. The account that spread the image on social media identified itself as a troll account.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on August 4, 2025. It shared an image purporting to be an authentic screenshot of a CNN article from that day. It opened:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk found in critical condition.
The image continued:
54 year old Billionaire and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter - Elon Musk, has been rushed to the hospital after a sudden collapse in the White House, the Trump administration reports at 11:45am, August 04, 2025.
The administration claims that in an act of undying love, Musk yelled out 'Vox populi, Vox dei' before overdosing on Ketamine directly in front of the President's gaze. They follow up by alleging Trump rushed over to Musk, crying out 'Sweet Pookie, wherefore wouldst thou go to such great lengths for mine own sake? Thou couldst simply have spoken thus: 'I long'd to have thee back, oh dearest great leader'. Dearest me'.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: screenshot of a post by the Mike27356894 account on x.com)
A Google search across the CNN website for the specific language of the supposed headline showed no matches:
(Image source: screenshot of the search results on Google.com)
A broad search across the CNN website (archived here) for the billionaire's last name did not lead to anything remotely close to the claim reviewed in this fact check:
(Image source: screenshot of the search results tab on Cnn.com)
Searches across news articles on Google and Yahoo (archived here) offered no confirmation for the rumor.
A search for Musk's name on the White House website (archived here) didn't show a single result from August 4, 2025.
A search for mentions of his name across the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's official and personal accounts on X produced no results (archived here):
(Image source: screenshot of the advanced search results tab on X.com)
The user (archived here) that published the claim on X did not show any visible signs of affiliation with CNN or any other media outlet; instead, it described itself as "just a troll account".
