Elon Musk Whines That Buying Twitter Has Been Emotionally "Painful"

"I’ve been under constant attack."

Hot Blooded

Twitter CEO Elon Musk is not one for granting regular interviews in any sense of the word — but when he does, he pulls no punches.

In an unexpected and off-the-cuff interview with the BBC, the billionaire made multiple bizarre confessions, including that he's experienced some emotional pain online and that he dresses his Shiba Inu dog like Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes and refers to it as Twitter's CEO.

The richest man in the world even tried to score some sympathy points, arguing that he's often being made the laughingstock online.

"I’ve been under constant attack," Musk whined in the interview. "It’s not like I have a stone-cold heart or anything. If you’re under constant criticism or attack and that gets fed to you including through Twitter — it’s rough, you know."

He went on to admit that he doesn't ever "turn replies off" and removed his entire block list, which, if true, means he's exposed to all of the "negative feedback" coming his way.

But we can't help but wonder whether Musk's often brutish actions make him an easy target. Put simply, Musk loves to dish out — but seemingly has a hard time taking it.

Big Reveal

At one point, Musk even revealed what we all had already assumed but that he'd never confirmed.

"He confessed today that the only reason he went through with buying Twitter was that he believed a judge would force him to go through with the transaction," Bruce Daisley, who led Twitter's operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa until 2020, told the BBC after the exchange aired.

"He's never admitted that till now, so it was a very whimsical interview," he added.

Daisley — who accused Musk of behaving "like the local drunk" last month after the CEO bashed a disabled ex-employee on the platform — added that this interview both "gave us some insight into the strange life of this billionaire" and showcased that he's pretty inconsistent with his messaging.

As with most things in Musk's world, the interview itself has become its own minor news item. But those two admissions alone were pretty bombastic — a telling exchange of a man, who only rarely wears his heart on his sleeve.

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