--- title: "Elon Musk Responds to News of How He Was Humiliated" description: "Elon Musk took to his website to prove he was unfazed by the report that detailed how he was humiliated in the White House." date: "2025-05-23" modified: "2025-05-23" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-responds-humiliated" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "doge" - "elon musk" - "trump administration" - "twitter" --- # Elon Musk Responds to News of How He Was Humiliated ![Elon Musk took to his website to show how he was unfazed by the report that detailed how he was humiliated in the White House.]() *\Image: Patrick Pleul / picture alliance via Getty / Futurism\* Elon Musk is having a mini-meltdown on his website after *The Atlantic* published a [damning dive]() into his time at the White House, leading with a mortifying description of how he was humiliated by one of his superiors. Responding Wednesday to a tweet dissing the magazine, Musk [wrote](), under his newly re-adopted display name "Kekius Maximus" and accompanying AI-generated profile pic of himself as a Roman centurion: "They are the past, the legacy media fading into obscurity." Illustrating how definitely not-mad he was, Musk just kept posting through it. "*The Atlantic* is a zombie publication kept on life support by Laurene," Musk wrote, referring to its billionaire owner Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. "Steve would be very disappointed." Riffing with a user nicknamed "gork," who joked about Steve Jobs haunting Laurene from the grave, Musk posted a ghost emoji and a crying-laughing emoji. Later, he [stamped]() his seal of approval — a bullseye emoji paired with a crying laughing emoji, take note — on a joke made by "gork" about *The Atlantic*'s "ghosted" readership. (The magazine surpassed 1 million subscriptions [last year](). X's userbase has been in a [steady decline]() since Musk's takeover in 2022, losing nearly one-fifth of its daily active users in the US.) https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1925315302591442996 So what has him so incensed? According to *The* *Atlantic's* reporting, Musk, once gleeful in his role of [taking a chainsaw]() to the federal government, became an [increasingly isolated figure]() in the West Wing during his time there, with fewer friends and an ever-growing list of powerful enemies. On one occasion, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent exploded at Musk for choosing the acting IRS commissioner behind Bessent's back. "Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!" Bessent shouted, loud enough for president Donald Trump to hear, and pretty much anyone else in the halls of the West Wing. Bessent soon got his way and [booted]() Musk's pick for IRS commissioner. *The Atlantic* summarized the significance of the shout-matching: "The power struggle has become a symbol of Musk's inability to build support for his approach." Musk, even by his standards, has been awfully testy with the media lately. In an interview with *Bloomberg News* on Tuesday, he [repeatedly lashed out]() at the interviewer Mishal Husain for asking standard questions about his businesses, including Tesla. At one point, he called Husain a "NPC" — a video game term which means "non-playable character," in an unsubtle way of saying they're a brainless idiot that doesn't think for themselves. Musk, in an NPC-like lack of self-awareness, had something to tweet about the conversation afterwards. "The interviewer was incredibly belligerent," Musk [wrote](). **More on Elon Musk:** *[After Leaving the Government in Ruins, Elon Musk Says He's Giving Up on Politics]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()