Elon Musk used a very serious gathering of very serious people to “activate meme mode.”
The Tesla CEO, who is a 54-year-old man, finds himself back in President Donald Trump’s inner circle despite a staggering fallout and a subsequent slide into publicly trumpeting White supremacist talking points.
But really, he’s just a silly guy. Musk, who is presumably in Trump’s China entourage to help get a tech deal over the line, was spotted pulling a bizarre banquet stunt while posing for selfies.
At one point during the meal at the Great Hall of the People, Musk refused to stand for a selfie with outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook, whom Trump refers to as “Tim Apple.”
Musk contorted his face and comedically raised his eyebrow as his fellow tech titan posed for a photo. Musk was at it again as other punters jumped into photographs with him. “Elon Musk just activated meme mode in Beijing,” Musk fan page ‘Doge Desinger’ fawned on X.
However, he did not come close to out-weirding Trump. “Just as many Chinese now love basketball and blue jeans, Chinese restaurants in America today outnumber the five largest fast food chains in the United States all combined—that’s a pretty big statement,” the president said during a speech in the hall.
He added that it is a “great honor” to visit China, saying that he and President Xi Jinping had “extremely positive and productive conversations.”
Musk, meanwhile, made headlines during another animated display beside Trump in May last year. During the DOGE farewell appearance in the Oval Office, Musk had a visible black eye and behaved erratically.
A reporter referenced the injury and asked Musk if his eye was OK. Firstly, Musk joked that he wasn’t anywhere near France, a reference to a viral video of the French first lady pushing French President Emmanuel Macron in the face.
However, his explanation got weirder. “I was just horsing around with little X, and I said ‘go ahead, punch me in the face,’ and he did,” Musk explained. X is the tech billionaire’s five-year-old son who has regularly appeared with Musk and the president at the White House. He is also on the trip to China with his dad and Trump.
“Turns out, even a five-year-old punching you in the face, actually...” Musk continued before being interrupted by Trump.
“That was X that did that?” the president asked. “X could do it. If you knew X, he could do it.”
