BOOM: Elon Musk’s daughter says father’s rally gesture was ‘definitely a Nazi salute’
Vivian Jenna Wilson tells Teen Vogue she feels obliged to take stand for trans rights as Trump attacks community
Lauren Aratani
Thu 20 Mar 2025 10.18 EDT
theguardian.com
Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk’s eldest child, has spoken out publicly about her father, saying that Musk “definitely [did] a Nazi salute” at two rallies in January and that he is part of a White House that’s “cartoonishly evil”.
In a new interview with Teen Vogue, her second interview with the media since she publicly denounced her father last year, Wilson, 20, said that the things her father has been doing in the federal government were “fucking cringe”.
“The Nazi salute shit 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. “That shit was definitely a Nazi salute.”
Wilson entered the public eye last year after Musk spoke about her in a podcast, saying that he had been “tricked” into signing documents so that Wilson, who was 16 at the time, could receive gender-affirming medical treatment.
“I lost my son, essentially. They call it ‘deadnaming’ for a reason. The reason they call it ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead.” he said. Musk added that the experience made him vow “to destroy the woke mind virus after that, and we’re making some progress”.
In an interview with NBC News last year, Wilson said that Musk had been largely absent in her life and that he was often cruel to her for showing feminine traits when she was growing up. She went to California court in 2022 to officially remove “Musk” from her name, saying in court filings she “no longer live[s] with or wish[es] to be related to my biological father in any way shape or form”.
“He was cold,” she told NBC News. “He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic.”
By law, Wilson had to get her father, whom she had not spoken to for months at that point, to sign off on her receiving gender-affirming medical treatment, since she was a minor at the time.
“I was constantly having mental breakdowns in the middle of class. 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, who is currently a student in Tokyo, said that she felt obligated to talk about trans issues 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.”
Over the last several years, conservatives have targeted the transgender community through legislation. Since coming into office, Trump has signed executive orders banning transgender people from the military and from participating in women’s sports. On Wednesday, a federal judge blocked Trump’s 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.
Wilson said that her mother, Justine Musk, Musk’s first wife, had been supportive of her and that she “doesn’t keep up with [Musk’s] side of the family”. Musk, an outspoken pronatalist, has 14 children with four different women.
When asked whether she is on good terms with her siblings, Wilson responded: “I will say I do not actually know how many siblings I have, if you include half-siblings.”
Though her father is a billionaire who is playing a major role in the Trump administration, Wilson said Musk doesn’t loom large in her life.
“People thrive off of fear. I’m not giving anyone that space in my mind,” she said. “The only thing that gets to live free in my mind are drag queens.” |
