Elon Musk and Jon Stewart traded barbs in a social media spat which saw the billionaire and late-night host repeatedly fling insults at each other.
The exchange between the pair, who are worlds apart politically, began when Musk reacted critically to a segment on Stewart’s The Weekly Show about the effect that X has had on democracy.
Musk bought X for about $44 billion in 2022 under the guise of facilitating free speech, or, as he put it, “upsetting the far right and the far left equally.”
Musk “has pushed this idea that undocumented, non-citizen voting is rampant, it is sowing the seeds of our destruction, and we cannot do it,” Stewart, 63, said on his show.
“The irony of it all is [because of] this guy’s platform, this guy’s algorithm, which he is in charge of... he is a far more relevant actor in the warping of our democracy, through his money and his algorithm, than any measure of undocumented, non-citizen voting will ever be,” he added of the centibillionaire.
Stewart then anticipated how Musk would respond to that.
“What his argument—and I think his people’s argument—would be, is: now that we’re getting uncensored material, now that the First Amendment has primacy, people move to the right because they learn the truth,” he said.
“But,” Stewart countered, “the truth is that algorithm incentivizes the misinformation from the right, and he designs it.”
Musk gave a brief response.
“Jon Stewart is an extremely skilled propagandist disguised as a truth-teller,” the 54-year-old wrote.
Stewart fired back later on Thursday that Musk is simply “an extremely skilled propagandist.”
An hour later, Musk replied, “Not as good as you! Stop being so humble.”
Stewart then invited Musk to appear on his show.
It’s unclear if the two have ever met, let alone had a taped discussion. But they have talked about it.
Last year, Musk claimed he would go on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show for an interview with Stewart—“if it airs unedited.” But that never materialized; Stewart said Musk had “ghosted” him after having read a direct message following up on his offer.
“Judging from his most recent revelations of his baby mamas, I think everyone has been left on read at some point by that gentleman,” Stewart later joked on his podcast.
As of last April, Musk had fathered at last 14 children with four women.
Musk’s overhaul of X has been widely criticized for being soft on its treatment of false information. Misinformation experts said in 2024 that his platform enabled the spread of false claims. Musk himself pushed false and misleading statements about that year’s presidential election—claims that ultimately had two billion views, according to the Center for Countering Digitial Hate.
