Elon Musk has told fleeing X advertisers to “go fuck yourself” in a wide-ranging interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times DealBook Summit yesterday. Even by Musk standards, the X owner and Tesla CEO said some truly wild and cringeworthy things.
“Go fuck yourself”
If there was one takeaway phrase from the entire interview, it was this. Sorkin addressed Musk’s recent endorsement of antisemitic comments and the subsequent fleeing of advertisers from the platform. Musk then interjected to say that he hoped those advertisers stop advertising on the platform. “If someone is trying to blackmail me with advertising—blackmail me with money—go fuck yourself.”
After some nervous and uncomfortable laughter from the audience, Musk then reiterated “Go fuck yourself.”
“Hey, Bob”
It’s rare that you see one world-famous CEO call out another powerful CEO in a public forum, but after the above exchange, Musk quickly added, “Hey, Bob—if you’re in the audience.”
This was a likely reference to Disney CEO Bob Iger, whom Sorkin had recently mentioned. Disney is one of the many advertisers that have recently paused ad spending on X.
“Tell it to Earth”
Sorkin then pressed Musk on how the economics of telling advertisers not to advertise would allow the X platform to continue running. “What this advertising boycott is going to do is kill the company,” Musk answered, adding, “And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company.”
When Sorkin rebutted that those advertisers would likely argue that they didn’t kill the company, his antics did, Musk said, “Tell it to Earth . . . Let’s see how Earth responds to that.” When a single person begins speaking for “Earth,” we know we’ve reached peak megalomania.
“[X] will be gone”
Perhaps the most revealing quote of the interview addressed the future viability of X as a company. Sorkin asked Musk whether he would use his “enormous resources” to keep the platform funded and going for a long time even if advertisers kept fleeing. But Musk suggested he would not keep X afloat by himself.
“I mean, if the company fails because of an advertising boycott, it will fail because of an advertising boycott,” Musk answered. “And that will be what bankrupts the company, and that’s what everyone on Earth will know . . . and it will be gone because of an advertising boycott.”
“I’ve done more for the environment than any single human on Earth”
The conversation then pivoted to Tesla, where Musk let us know what he really thought of himself. “Telsa has done more to help the environment than all other companies combined. It would be fair to say, therefore, as the leader of the company, I’ve done more for the environment than any single human on Earth.”
You can watch a majority of Musk’s interview with Sorkin below.
Watch my conversation with @ElonMusk: https://t.co/YedkELVhFn
— Andrew Ross Sorkin (@andrewrsorkin) November 29, 2023
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