X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed two separate alleged attempts on his life, adding that he’s considering developing an Iron Man-style suit of armour.
His comments came in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday.
The former president survived after a bullet grazed his ear, but a member of the crowd was killed, and two others were left critically injured after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire during a campaign rally.
Mr Musk, who officially endorsed Mr Trump as his pick for president after the shooting, has previously shown interest in a Tony Stark-inspired suit, meeting with engineer Dylan Lange Edminston who built his own prototype.
Iron Man writer Mark Fergus has even said Mr Musk is one of the inspirations behind Marvel’s billionaire philanthropist, while the SpaceX CEO also made a brief cameo in Iron Man 2.
However, in response to a post on X that read ‘you better beef up your security too @elonmusk’ after the shooting, he wrote: ‘Maybe it’s time to build that flying metal suit of armor [sic].’
The comment came a few minutes after Mr Musk had revealed the attempts on his life in response to a post about his security.
Controversial commentator Ian Miles-Cheong wrote: ‘Please, please triple your protection. If they can come for Trump they will also come for you. @elonmusk.’
He replied: ‘Two people (separate occasions) have already tried to kill me in the past 8 months. They were arrested with guns about 20 mins drive from Tesla HQ in Texas.’
However, while some users on X were concerned for the CEO’s safety, others quickly began spreading conspiracy theories on the platform.
Republican congressman Mike Collins wrote ‘Joe Biden sent the orders’, adding in another post that the president should be charged for ‘inciting an assassination’.
His first post included additional context making clear there is no evidence that President Biden was involved in the shooting, the second did not.
Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote: ‘Democrats wanted this to happen. They’ve wanted Trump gone for years and they’re prepared to do anything to make that happen.’
Mr Musk bought X, then Twitter, for $44 billion in October 2022. Within months he laid off around 6,000 staff – including from content moderation teams – leaving only 1,500 at the company.
Further redundancies since have included staff in charge of misinformation policy.
