How The Drama Between Elon Musk And Don Lemon Started
Elon Musk and Don Lemon's once beautiful bromance ended on a bitter note. Initially, everything was as sweet as a ripe peach between them, with Musk wooing Lemon to bring his journalistic prowess to X, formerly known as Twitter. However, the idyllic phase was short-lived, and the situation quickly soured, leading to the news anchor's abrupt and unceremonious firing from the billionaire's struggling social media platform.
To outsiders looking in, it was really no surprise that things went south as the two men's big ego energy was a recipe for combustion. Lemon's on-set behavior and diva antics have caused him trouble more than once in his career. So, it was inevitable that the shady side of Lemon would rear its ugly head at some point. Meanwhile, Musk has a reputation for feuding with seemingly everyone — from his mother-in-law to Bill Gates to Azealia Banks to his own daughter. It was only a matter of time before the former CNN host was added to the list.
Still, the money was on Lemon hanging around long enough for at least one episode of his new independent web-based show to air. But nope. It was all over before "The Don Lemon Show" even premiered. So, how did the drama between Musk and Lemon start? Well, it all kicked off following a disastrous sitdown between the couple at SpaceX's offices in Austin, Texas and rapidly escalated to a bitter war of words and a flurry of accusations.
Lemon and Musk's heated interview
There was great fanfare in January when X announced it had struck a deal to air "The Don Lemon Show" three times a week. The 30-minute premiere featured an interview with Lemon and Elon Musk. However, the former CNN news anchor failed to do his homework before sitting down with the famously testy Tesla CEO, who has a reputation for lashing out in interviews when things become uncomfortable.
In a heated appearance at the New York Times' annual DealBook Summit in November 2023, Musk angrily hit back at corporations threatening to pull campaign dollars from X amid accusations of antisemitism. "If somebody's gonna try to blackmail me with advertising? ... Go f*** yourself," Musk declared, refusing to apologize for his contentious comments.
Things became even more volatile during the Lemon interview when Musk became seriously irked by the line of questioning, which included a grilling about his political allegiances, controversial stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion, lackadaisical approach to moderating hate speech on X, unwavering support of the white nationalist far-right great replacement conspiracy theory, and drug use. Proving that nobody paints Musk into a corner, the SpaceX founder abruptly canceled his deal with Lemon once the cameras stopped rolling. "X is a platform that champions free speech, and we're proud to provide an open environment for diverse voices and perspectives," a company tweet announced. X insisted it was a champion of free speech but "[reserved] the right to make decisions about our business partnerships."
Lemon's accusations of hypocrisy
The drama really kicked off after Elon Musk axed Don Lemon from X. The disgruntled news host went on the attack, questioning Musk's self-professed dedication to free speech and open discussion. "We had a good conversation. Clearly, he felt differently," Lemon said in a statement. "His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me."
During his ill-fated sit-down with Lemon, Musk made it crystal clear that he doesn't feel the need to answer questions from reporters, which kind of defeats the point of sitting down for an interview in the first place, given that they inevitably include lots of questions from reporters. "The only reason I'm in this interview is because you're on the X platform, and you asked for it. Otherwise, I would not do this interview," a visibly disgruntled Musk announced. "I'm criticized constantly. I could care less," he later proclaimed.
Meanwhile, Lemon's battle with Musk has apparently resulted in his web-based show taking a serious hit. According to the New York Post, viewer numbers are so dire that any revenue earned won't even cover production costs. "Nobody is watching," a source claimed. "Poor Don, he doesn't realize people watched the first interview because of Elon — not him! Watching the Elon interview reminded everyone of how much they dislike Don."