Vivian Jenna Wilson Rips Elon Musk: ‘Definitely a Nazi Salute’
Vivian Jenna Wilson, the estranged 20-year-old daughter of ultra-wealthy White House “tech support” consultant Elon Musk, gave just her second interview since her father said last year that she had been “killed” by the “woke mind virus,” for a cover story in Teen Vogue. And she didn’t hold back when it came to the parent she sought to escape when she legally changed her name along with her gender in 2022, explaining to a California court that she no longer wished to be connected to him “in any way, shape or form.”
Wilson told Teen Vogue that although she occasionally mocks him on the social platforms Threads and Bluesky — competitors of Musk’s X — her biological father doesn’t take up much space in her head. “I mean, I’ll see things about him in the news and think, ‘That’s fucking cringe, I should probably post about this and denounce it,’ which I have done a few times,” she explained. She saw no ambiguity in the straight-armed salute Musk gave at an inauguration event for President Donald Trump in January, which he has unconvincingly argued was no indication of Nazi sympathies. “The Nazi salute shit was insane,” Wilson said. “Honey, we’re going to call a fig a fig, and we’re going to call a Nazi salute what it was. That shit was definitely a Nazi salute. The crowd” — who cheered through the ordeal — “is equally to blame, and I feel like people are not talking about that. That crowd should be denounced.”
Wilson, who is currently a student in Tokyo, also laughed off the suggestion that she might fear her powerful dad, whom she has not spoken to since 2020. “He’s a pathetic man-child,” she said. “Why would I feel scared of him? ‘Ohhh, he has so much power.’ Nah, nah, nah. I don’t give a fuck. Why should I be scared of this man? Because he’s rich? Oh, no, I’m trembling. Ooh, shivering in my boots here. I don’t give a fuck how much money anyone has. I don’t. I really don’t. He owns Twitter,” she added, referring to the established brand name Musk abandoned in favor of “X” after he acquired the platform. “Okay. Congratulations.”
And Wilson challenged the story that Musk has tried to cultivate around his political evolution, in which he has suggested that Wilson’s gender transition caused him to gravitate toward right-wing politics. Musk’s views are “not because of me,” she said. “It’s such a convenient narrative, and that’s just not the case. That’s not what that does to people. Him going further on the right, and I’m going to use the word ‘further’ — make sure you put ‘further’ in there — is not because of me. That’s insane.”
Luckily, Wilson’s mother, Justine Wilson (Musk’s first wife) has been supportive of her transition, she said, though she expressed regret that she came out on Instagram before telling her, saying “if I were to do it again, she deserves to be the first one to know.” Still, her mom wasn’t exactly caught of guard, Wilson recalled, saying, “she pretended to be slightly surprised for 30 seconds and then was like, ‘Yeah, honey. Okay.’” While she doesn’t consider her prolific posting online to be activism, she finds it essential to talk about such gender-affirming care. “I would really like to raise awareness of the fact that trans care for minors, especially puberty blockers, is really, really important,” she said, noting that she had to get parental consent for testosterone blockers and hormone replacement therapy, as she was a minor at the time. “So maybe stop demonizing these literal children or the people around these children who are just trying to help them to feel comfortable in their own skin.” She called the Trump administration “cartoonishly evil” for their attacks on not only the trans community but migrants, people of color, and other marginalized groups.
Wilson also acknowledged the absurdity of learning of her new half-siblings on the subreddit for RuPaul’s Drag Race when users there joked about Musk having yet another child with one of several women. But perhaps the most devastating blow to the dad she has roundly rejected was a comment on how he and other right-wing ideologues post on social media. “They’re not funny,” Wilson said. “You have to be funny. Most of them have the charisma of a soaking bathrobe. I mean, it’s not my fault that most of them don’t know how to be funny. It’s not that hard.”
For a man who prides himself on his sense of humor, is clearly keen to be well-liked, and recently told a crowd of Republicans “I am become meme,” it’s hard to imagine a more brutal critique.
