Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX founder and the world’s richest man, threatened journalist Kara Swisher with prison in a recent post on X.
The clash comes as the midterm elections draw closer, with projections pointing to a potential “blue wave” victory for Democrats. Musk, a prominent ally of Donald Trump, appeared to respond angrily to criticism from the technology journalist.
Swisher, who last week launched the High Stakes podcast with former First Lady Hillary Clinton, made the remarks during an appearance on The Bulwark podcast.
During the episode, she said Democrats should consider investigating Musk if they take control of both chambers of Congress in November.
Swisher also suggested that Musk might already be in jail if Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent, had won the 2024 presidential election.
“Under Kamala Harris, he might be in jail right now, right?” Swisher said. “And that’s not because she’s some avenging fury. It’s because there is a lot of questions around different companies of his.”
She added that agencies affected by the cuts Musk made while leading the Department of Government Efficiency could begin investigating his various companies.
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk reacted furiously and threatened journalist and Hillary Clinton podcast partner Kara Swisher with prison after she criticized him online
Speaking about Musk on a podcast, Swisher said: “Under Kamala Harris, he might be in jail right now, right?” She added: “And that’s not because she’s some avenging fury. It’s because there is a lot of questions around different companies of his.”
The world’s first trillionaire took his anger over Swisher’s remarks to social media. Source: @elonmusk/X
Swisher went on to say: “If Donald Trump loses the Senate, I would be worried if I were him even though how rich he is.
“He has a very big sense of fate. And I think it’s coming for him. And real hard.”
Musk, described as the world’s first trillionaire, later took his reaction to X, posting: “Live by the sword, die by the sword.
“Sounds like Swisher really wants to go to prison.”
An excerpt of Swisher’s comments had attracted more than 2.4 million views on X, while Musk’s reply had received about 574,000 views by Wednesday night. The post prompted a wave of strong reactions.
One user asked: “Why would he be in jail for? He hasn’t broken the law.”
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Another sought to reassure the entrepreneur, writing: “No worries, Kamala is NEVER going to be President.”
Polling projections suggest next month’s midterm elections could give Democrats control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Leading Republicans, however, have argued that the surveys are skewed and that the GOP will perform significantly better than predicted.
The Daily Mail contacted Swisher for comment.
Swisher launched the High Stakes podcast with Hillary Clinton just last week
Destroyed cars in the courtyard of an apartment block following a Russian attack in Kyiv
Musk has poured more than $276 million into Republican groups as the party faces a challenging environment in advance of the midterm elections.
The development comes as it was reported Musk ordered a reduction in Starlink satellite services for Ukraine even as the tech billionaire claimed any limits on the communications system would ultimately have come from the president.
Musk capped the speed at which Ukrainian equipment could connect to the system, making some of Kyiv’s drones useless, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Kyiv has accused Washington of deliberately slowing speeds at which Starshield – a Starlink satellite network for national security services – can be used effectively, a charge denied last week by US President Donald Trump.
Musk had previously said that ‘any limits on speed or usage’ of Starshield systems were ‘decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS’, referring to Mr Trump.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Washington had no prior knowledge of the slowdown.
‘The President has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr Musk,’ Mr Rubio said during his trip to India.
‘That’s a private company; the President doesn’t run that company and can’t direct that company to do anything… I’m telling you, there was no foreknowledge.’
On Tuesday, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the Pentagon had not directed any changes to Starshield, saying: ‘We haven’t pulled anything back.’