ANALYSIS: Top 10 Media Freakouts Over Elon Musk Becoming a Trillionaire

Joseph Vazquez
June 18th, 2026 10:00 AM

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For all the media bluster that Elon Musk’s hostile takeover of Twitter could ultimately nuke his net worth, the goalposts have since been moved and those same media talking heads are having a meltdown over the fact that the world’s richest man just proved all of them wrong.

Musk’s SpaceX skyrocketed in value per share by 20 percent June 12, eclipsing the IPO price at $135. This effectively lifted Musk’s net worth past the $1 trillion milestone and cemented him as the globe’s first trillionaire.

When Musk first purchased Twitter with a $44 billion bid in 2022, a number of disgruntled lefty outlets seething over one of their censorial narrative gatekeeper platforms being hijacked projected holistic financial doom for Musk. Business Insider beamed October 2022 that “[t]aking control of Twitter left Elon Musk $8 billion worse off overnight.” Fortune magazine sneered in May 2022 that while Musk was “busy” announcing “changes to his political leaning and thrashing ‘wactivists’ on Twitter, the share price of Tesla sank to its lowest level of the year, wiping $12.3 billion from his net worth.” Forbes was quick on the draw as early as April 2022, finger-wagging that “Elon Musk’s Proposed Twitter Takeover Has Already Cost Him $9 Billion.”

In 2023, then-CNN Business Executive Editor David Goldman snorted that “Elon Musk’s wealth destruction has become historic.” Since then, not only has X.com (formerly Twitter) roared back to a $44 billion valuation according to The Financial Times, but recent reporting from The Motley Fool projects Tesla shares to soar in the second half of 2026; having already completed a one percent climb on SpaceX’s coattails. 

Now, instead of admitting that Musk’s business acumen once again outplayed his detractors in the long term, the lefty media have descended into a wacky tailspin by whipping out the exhausted bourgeoisie vs. proletariat binary to make Musk seem like an arch-villain in Corporate America who doesn’t deserve his wealth. Like we haven’t heard that one before. 

To that end, MRC Business compiled a list of the top 10 media freakouts over Musk’s trillionaire-achievement that have blanketed the airwaves and internet the past few days.

1. The Verge Calls ‘World’s First Trillionaire’ a Mass ‘Killer’

Attorneys with an expertise in tort litigation are going to have a field day with this one. A major  lefty tech outlet screeched that Musk becoming a trillionaire is tainted by the fact that he’s somehow a murderer. No, we’re not kidding.

The Verge Senior Editor TC Sottek didn't even try to hide his hatred for rich people in a June 12 item, the headline of which read simply, “The world’s first trillionaire is a killer.” And what was the rationale for Sottek’s wild-eyed spiral into potential lawsuit-territory? Oh nothing of import really, other than Musk’s DOGE operation that sought to gut excessive government bloat and waste from federal expenditures. In Sottek’s logic, that makes Musk guilty of — *checks notes* — genocide:

A year ago, Musk’s actions directly led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. He did it knowingly. And, worse — gleefully. This is not a serious person, but his abuse of the world is deadly serious. In the first months of President Donald Trump’s second term, the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) destroyed the US Agency for International Development, whose mission was a boon to public health around the globe.

 

2. Mirror, Please? Jimmy Kimmel Blasts ‘Obscenely Wealthy Weirdo’ Elon Musk

ABC’s nonfunny guy Jimmy Kimmel responded to Musk becoming a trillionaire by throwing low-brow ad hominems against him during the June 12 edition of his late night show. “This obscenely wealthy weirdo has the ability and means to blow up the moon if he chooses. And also to put a lot of other people’s money in his pockets.” Oh, look, the guy worth $50 million is worried about “obscenely wealthy” people! And hearing a 10-year old “weirdo” insult from the same guy that’s gotten raked over the goals for wearing blackface and having random women on the street play games where they had to guess what’s in his pants with their hands is comedic gold that the milquetoast Kimmel couldn’t even hope to strike during his lifetime. 

 

3. Multimillionaire Paul Krugman Cries ‘Rigged System’ Made Musk a Trillionaire

It’s no surprise that the “transitory” genius of disaffected former New York Times columnist Paul Krugman found its way onto MRC’s list of Musk meltdowns.

Despite prophesying December 2022 that Musk was destined to “destroy” the Tesla “brand” by embracing MAGA culture, the pseudo-economist the predictive capability of a Magic 8 Ball toy took to MS NOW June 13 to kvetch over a “rigged system” being the root cause of Musk’s recent success. He even went as far as to call SpaceX a “Ponzi scheme.” Krugman seethed to The Beat host Ari Melber: “This is a rigged system. Sorry, but this is genuine rigging … Clearly, the system has all been tilted into producing this absurd valuation that makes the world’s first trillionaire.” We’re sorry, multimillionaire said what?

Krugman even railed that “People are being forced effectively to buy into SpaceX because the indexes are including it, even though by the normal rules, they should not.” What in the world is he talking about? SpaceX competes for competitive government contracts based on performance like every other major tech company, and its inclusion in the stock indices along with IPO mechanics are standard. Could a “Ponzi scheme” build the world’s first reusable orbital class rocket? Not likely.

 

4. MS NOW Has Epic Meltdown Over Trillionaire ‘Clown’ Who ‘Bought’ 2024 Election for Trump.

To say that the uber leftists at MS Now were triggered by Musk blowing past wealth milestones is a massive understatement.

The June 13 edition of MS Now’s The Weekend was rage-bait galore. University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers — who made headlines recently by red-pilling the media on how all the U.S. recession talk was a load of bunk — joined the show to color Musk’s newly minted trillionaire status by railing that the Tesla “clown” had “bought” the 2024 election with $250 million for Trump. Does he have the same issue with liberal billionaire Tom Steyer spending $558 million to buy both the 2020 election and the 2026 California gubernatorial election for himself? 

Co-host Eugene Daniels was "very angry," and co-host Jonathan Capehart also chimed in, bleating that Musk’s success was emblematic of the “the yawning gap between the wealthy and the rest of us,” as if his $5 million net worth meant he was pinching pennies like everyone else on Main Street.  

Do the names George Soros, Michael Bloomberg or Neville Roy Singham ring any bells, guys? Or are we only supposed to care about rich people when it applies to one side of the political aisle? 

 

5. American Success? Nah! CNN’s Kasie Hunt Smears Musk’s Trillionaire Status as ‘Sign of American Decline’

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt had a conniption over SpaceX’s stock going to the moon during the June 14 edition of State of the Union. She teed up her anti-Musk cry-fest, “Elon Musk just became the world’s first trillionaire so, of course, a sign of American ingenuity. But are we also experiencing American decline? That’s next.” She went further, ignoring the fact that one estimate puts her in multimillionaire-status while she kvetches over the trillionaire:

The question that I keep coming back to is whether we in America are experiencing a second Gilded Age. The first one, of course, caused ultimately backlash that gave us the 40-hour workweek and a lot of our labor laws.

Does being a millionaire put her in the “Gilded” category? Who knows, but this sounds like a whole lot of bad grapes:

You are seeing on many sides of the aisle the divide between someone like Elon Musk, who has a trillion dollars, versus half of Americans who don't have $1,000 to patch a hole if their car hits a pot hole and they got to take it to the shop. 

 

6. Corn Howl: Mother Jones DC Bureau Chief Decries ‘Alt-Right Extremist,’ ‘Racist Conspiracy Monger’  Musk

Mother Jones DC Bureau Chief David Corn — notorious for his role in pushing the widely discredited Steele Dossier — suffered a system failure over “alt-right extremist” Musk ascending to trillionaire status. In an astonishing twist, Corn actually took issue with the media coverage around Musk’s achievement: “Most notably, the main media stories about Musk reaching this milestone sidestepped an important fact: The guy is a racist conspiracy monger.” 

Corn railed that “it’s a good time to review [Musk’s] record as an alt-right extremist who’s amplified and promoted noxious, dangerous, and false ideas.” One of those so-called “false ideas” was Musk’s public criticism of America’s most notorious billionaire George Soros, which he smeared as antisemitic:

Musk put up a post comparing Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros to the Marvel supervillain Magneto, and he contended that Soros hates humanity and ‘wants to erode the very fabric of civilization.’ His anti-Soros messages, broadcast to his 125 million or so followers, were widely excoriated as advancing antisemitic tropes.

It’s worth a reminder that Mother Jones is the same outlet that has repeatedly excoriated the Jewish State of Israel as an “apartheid” state. But calling Soros’s god-complex out for spending billions of his own fortune over the decades to manipulate global politics, education, American lawfare, to fit his dark open society worldview is somehow antisemitic? 

 

7. CNN Claimed ‘Virtually All’ of Musk’s Wealth Comes From Gov’t, then Admitted Only a ‘Small Portion’

CNN Business senior writer Chris Isidore had a wild-eyed take June 13 on Musk reaching trillionaire status: “How much of Musk’s wealth comes from government help? Virtually all of it.” At first glance, that headline alone is to get readers fired up over their tax dollars potentially financing the world’s richest man’s claim to fame.

That’s until you read the disclaimer Isidore buried in the fifth paragraph: “The question of how much Musk’s $1 trillion net worth comes from the government is not as simple as it sounds. By some measures, only a small portion of his wealth is thanks to taxpayers. His companies have received ‘only’ tens of billions from government contracts and programs.”

Oh, is Isidore referring to the competitive contracts SpaceX and a litany of other major companies (ULA, Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Electric, etc.) compete for on a yearly basis? Going from “virtually all of it” to “only a small portion” in the same article is a major head-fake.

Then, in an amazing plot twist, Isidore actually blamed Obama-era carbon emissions regulations for why Tesla’s value shot to the moon due its particular niche in electric vehicle manufacturing: “But Tesla’s most significant financial support was not from tax credits for EV buyers. It was from a government program to reduce carbon emissions across the automotive industry.”  Reading Isidore’s indirect takedown of the Obama government putting its thumb on the scales — which had nothing to do with Musk — is a sight to behold:

Under the regulatory framework, car companies had to meet emissions limits. If they didn’t, they would have to buy ‘emissions credits’ from companies that did comply with the limits. And the one company that always came under the emissions limits and had credits to sell was Tesla, since all of its vehicles are electric. That meant virtually every other car company in the US was lining up to pour money into Tesla’s coffers as a result of the regulations.

None of that has anything to do with Musk getting tax dollars of course. But Isidore’s on a clear tear here to twist and finagle any anecdote he can to make his initial, asinine “You didn’t build that!” talking point stick.

 

8. Lefty Economist Calls Trillionaire Era ‘Dire for Democracy’ and Calls on Readers to ‘Fight Back’

Lefty economists of the Paul Krugman or Thomas Piketty variety have a particularly bad habit of penalizing people for their successes. Media fan favorite Gabriel Zucman is no exception.

The French Keynesian economist penned a whiny op-ed for The Guardian headlined, “The era of trillionaires will be dire for democracy. Here is how we can fight back.” Yes, let’s go to war with rich people comrades! Zucman, who enjoys a tenured professorship at University of California, Berkeley, raged that “there is a fundamental tension between extreme wealth and the very possibility of democracy.” In his view, “extreme wealth” is “the power to stifle competition, the power to shape public discourse, the power to influence policymaking, the power to buy elections, the power to stall social progress.” 

“The power to stifle competition?” Okay, that’s pretty rich coming from the same schlub whose prior analyses served as the pretext for media personalities to gaslight Americans into believing that President Joe Biden’s outrageous tax policies weren’t “radical.” He proceeded to label Musk a “sociopath”:

When the power of wealth is wielded by sociopaths, the consequences are a matter of life and death. But the individual merits or kindness of billionaires are in fact irrelevant. No one should want to live in a society where one single individual can be worth $1tn, no matter their personal virtues: such levels invariably skew power, distort markets and sap our democratic ideals.

 

9. AP Wails Trillionaire Elon Musk Is ‘Most Alarming Example’ of America’s ‘Wealth Gap’

It has become patently clear that the leftist media is completely incapable of perceiving society outside of the ridiculous class struggle binary they gripe about on a daily basis. Enter The Associated Press. AP business reporter Wyatte Grantham-Philips completely editorialized her so-called “news” piece on the world’s first trillionaire June 12 into anti-Musk sludge-flinging propaganda.
“That wealth, all owned by just one person, was once unfathomable … All the while, more and more people worldwide are struggling to pay their everyday bills. Many have decried the arrival of the first trillionaire as the latest and most alarming example of that wealth gap,” Grantham-Philips woke-scolded.

To prove her point about class warfare, Grantham-Philips argued that “There are nearly 8.2 billion people living on Earth today, per the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. If $1 trillion was divided among the entire population, each person would receive almost $122.” If that were true, Musk’s net worth wouldn’t do ugatz to solve global poverty if all his money were confiscated from him.

 

10. Punky BuzzFeed Swears ‘People Are Horrified’ by Musk Reaching Trillionaire Status

The decrepit remains of the once prominent political sludge website known as BuzzFeed posted a blaring picture on Facebook of Musk smirking underneath a nutty, hyperbolic headline for a piece by Lifestyle writer Danica Ramirez: “Elon Musk Just Became The World's First TRILLIONAIRE, And People Are Horrified.” Oh, yeah? Which “people” exactly, Ramirez? She only posted 14 social media examples from cherry-picked liberal X accounts, in addition to lefty multimillionaire socialist senators like Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT) who’ve been on an ironic tear against rich people. Somehow, Ramirez got it in her head that these 14 random anecdotes speak for the masses of average Americans who wouldn’t give two cents about what Musk is doing to make money. 

But Ramirez did manage to string together a few strawmen to make it seem like Musk was responsible for Americans’ struggles in the marketplace: “Well, folks, amid rising unemployment rates, gas, and grocery prices in the US (among other things), Elon Musk just became the world's first trillionaire.” What does Musk have to do with any of that? Well, nothing of course.  

And, unsurprisingly, the people are tired, disgusted, horrified, and everything in between. Here's how the internet — including Gavin Newsom and Bernie Sanders — is reacting to Elon Musk's trillionaire status.

Sure, let’s listen to what the uber-wealthy liberal politicians have to say about Musk, right? California Governor Gavin Newsom has an estimated net worth of $30 million, which makes his constituents’ average $80,000 salary look tiny, but don't count on liberal journalists to pit those numbers against each other. Democrats making millions is never scorned, because....their hearts are in "the right place."

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