A social media post shared on the eve of Pride Month last Sunday featured a photograph of Vivian Jenna Wilson, taken from her latest campaign for the Savage X Fenty brand. The user behind the post made a far-reaching claim: that without Wilson, Elon Musk would never have entered the political arena, never purchased Twitter, and Kamala Harris would now be in the White House. This assertion, linking the tech billionaire's $44 billion takeover of the social media platform to his daughter's gender transition, has circulated in various forms for years. Yet until now, Musk had never publicly acknowledged the connection in his own words. His reply to the post came as a single word: "True." Later, he followed up with another remark, stating that Wilson "was murdered by the woke mind virus, now it will die."

Long-Standing Speculation Backed by Leaked Documents

Evidence that Musk's decision to buy Twitter was substantially influenced by issues surrounding transgender people has been building for some time. In March 2022, Twitter suspended the Babylon Bee, a right-wing satire website, after it published a headline labelling Admiral Rachel Levine—a transgender woman and US Assistant Secretary for Health—its "Man of the Year." Seth Dillon, the site's chief executive, later confirmed that Musk contacted him directly to verify the suspension and even "mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter."

Further insight came from text messages released during legal proceedings in Delaware, where Musk attempted to back out of the acquisition. His former wife, Talulah Riley, wrote to him urging action. She said: "Can you buy Twitter and then delete it, please!? America is going INSANE. The Babylon Bee got suspension is crazy." She added: "Or can you buy Twitter and make it radically free-speech? ... Please do do something to fight woke-ism. I will do anything to help!" Musk replied: "Maybe buy it and change it to properly support free speech." Weeks later, he tabled his $44 billion offer.

Walter Isaacson, Musk's authorised biographer, drew a direct line from Wilson's transition to the Twitter deal in a Wall Street Journal excerpt. He wrote that Musk's "anti-woke sentiments were partly triggered by the decision of his oldest child, then 16, to transition." Isaacson added: "Twitter, he felt, had become infected by a similar mindset that suppressed right-wing and anti-establishment voices."

Hostile Changes to the Platform

Since taking ownership, Musk has used Twitter—now rebranded as X—to wage a sustained campaign against transgender people. He has made the platform markedly less welcoming for transgender journalists and activists. Among his actions, he digitally labelled the term "cisgender"—a standard descriptor for someone who is not transgender—as a slur. He also removed a long-standing policy that banned the deliberate misgendering and deadnaming of transgender users, a protection that had been in place since 2018.

On the first day of Pride Month in 2023, he personally overruled his own content moderation team to promote "What Is a Woman?", an anti-trans documentary produced by the Daily Wire. The film subsequently received more than a hundred million views on the platform, bolstered by Musk's amplification. He has also given a platform to fringe anti-trans groups, such as the American College of Pediatricians—a small organisation designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, often confused with the mainstream American Academy of Pediatrics. Furthermore, Musk has publicly stated he would lobby to criminalise gender-affirming care for minors using the platform.

As for his daughter Vivian, she has previously spoken out sharply against her father, though she did not respond publicly to his latest remarks at the time of writing.