Elon Musk’s eldest child, Vivian Wilson has described her paternal father as a “pathetic man-child” in her second-ever published interview, released last Thursday.
The twenty-year old student, who is currently based in Tokyo, was interviewed over months for a cover story for Teen Vogue — less than a year after she publicly denounced her father in an interview with NBC News where she labeled him as “uncaring and narcissistic”.
The estranged daughter of the pro-natalist told Teen Vogue she felt compelled to speak about her trans identity as someone who transitioned as a minor.
“There’s so much villainization of that, and I would really like to raise awareness of the fact that trans care for minors, especially puberty blockers, is really important,” she said. “Maybe stop demonizing these literal children or the people around these children who are just trying to help them feel comfortable in their own skin.”
Wilson’s mother, Justine Musk is the SpaceX founder’s first wife with whom he shares five children. Musk has 14 known children with four different women, although as Wilson points out, there may be more.
“I will say I do not actually know how many siblings I have, if you include half-siblings,” she said. “That’s just a fun fact.”
Wilson is active on social media, where her presence has accumulated a mass following across platforms including TikTok, Threads and Bluesky. In her latest interview, she spoke about a range of topics, including her musical tastes, trans issues, politics and her relationship with astrology. But it is her comments about her father that drew the most attention online.
Commenting on Musk’s appearance at two rallies earlier this year, she said he “definitely [did] a Nazi salute”, and that it was “insane”.
“Honey, we’re going to call a fig a fig, and we’re going to call a Nazi salute what it was,” Wilson said, adding, “The crowd is equally to blame, and I feel like people are not talking about that. That crowd should be denounced.”
She was candid in her assessment of the richest man in the White House, saying she did not like to be associated with him, and that she has no reason to fear him.
“He’s a a pathetic man-child,” she said. “I don’t give a f**k. 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 f**k how much money anyone has. I don’t. I really don’t. He owns Twitter. Okay. Congratulations. People thrive off of fear. I’m not giving anyone that space in my mind. The only thing that gets to live free in my mind are drag queens.”
She described the Trump administration as “cartoonishly evil” and said it is “horrifying what they’re doing” — “not only to the trans community, but also to migrants, to communities of color, to so many marginalized communities that are being systematically targeted by the new administration and having protections revoked.”
Since his return to the White House, Trump has signed executive orders banning transgender people from the military and from participating in women’s sports. Last week, a federal judge blocked his ban on trans people serving in the military.
“As a trans woman, I am terrified of losing access to guaranteed medical care. If I didn’t medically transition at the age I did, I don’t know what would’ve happened,” Wilson said.
She noted that Musk’s politics have shifted to the right, but said her being trans did not contribute to his move.
“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,” she said. “That’s insane.”
Speaking about her experience of coming out, she said that her mother was supportive of her transition, but that her father “was not as supportive.”
“I had not talked to him in months — in months — so I had to get f**king parental consent to get testosterone blockers and [hormone replacement therapy]” she said.
The Tesla CEO spoke to Jordan Peterson last year in an interview where he said Wilson was “killed” by the “woke mind virus” and that he was tricked into agreeing to gender-affirming care procedures.
“I lost my son, essentially,” he said. “They call it ‘deadnaming’ for a reason. The reason they call it ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead.”
At the time of transition, Wilson was a minor (16), so she had to ask her father to sign off on her receiving gender-affirming medical treatment.
“I was constantly having mental breakdowns in the middle of class,” Wilson said of the period before she transitioned. “I could not get through days. I didn’t want to wake up, I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to rot, pretty much. It was like, I cannot do this,” she said. “If I stay in the closet anymore, this is going to take me down a very destructive path.”
Wilson said she has been financially independent from her billionaire father since she came out as trans in 2020.
The editor of Teen Vogue told the New York Times that Wilson “has a really powerful and interesting and hilarious voice and a way of cutting through the noise with humour.”
“We expected there could be some reaction, but we really wanted this story to be guided by Vivian, and also to focus on who she is, beyond just his daughter,” Versha Sharma said.
In 2022, Wilson officially removed “Musk” from her name, telling a California court that she “no longer live[s] with or wish[es] to be related to my biological father in any way shape or form”.
Posting her reaction to her father’s Jordan Peterson interview last July, Wilson wrote on Threads: “He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there, and in the little time that he was I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness.”
“Obviously he can’t say that, so I’ve been reduced to a happy little stereotype f*g-ing along to use at his discretion. I think that says a lot about how he views queer people and children in general.”
“I’m legally recognized as a woman in the state of California and I don’t concern myself with the opinions of those who are below me. Obviously Elon can’t say the same because in a ketamine-fueled haze, he’s desperate for attention and validation from an army of degenerate red-pilled incels and pick-mes who are quick to give it to him.”