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| - In a clipped version of the video, Elon Musk walked ahead of his son, appearing to leave him behind. However, a longer clip from a different angle shows that Musk then turned around, stopped briefly, walked back to his son until he caught up and raised his arms in a victory gesture before they exited together.
More than a month after U.S. President Donald Trump's election victory rally on Jan. 19, 2025, a video from the event resurfaced of tech billionaire Elon Musk exiting the stage with his 4-year-old son, X Æ A-Xii (known as X). The video appears to show Musk walking ahead of his son, leaving him behind. One post of the video received more than 23.4 million views, as of this writing.
The clip also spread on Reddit, TikTok, Bluesky and Facebook. In the clip, someone in the audience yelled at Musk: "Wait, you're leaving your little boy."
The video is authentic. Audience members filmed the moment from multiple angles, and Musk and his son are wearing the same clothes they wore on stage while Musk gave his comments. Trump is also audible in the background of the video saying: "… 'cause we don't have too many [geniuses], but that one is a good one. Now I watched his rocket come down about three months ago and I …" This matches footage of Trump's speech after Musk's comments (at 2:06:40).
However, the most highly circulated version of the video is clipped; longer versions of the same scene from a different angle show that although Musk initially walked ahead of X while he was climbing down the stairs off the stage, he then turned around, stopped briefly, walked back to his son until he caught up and raised his arms in a victory gesture before they exited together. Musk was walking quickly as the two exited, forcing his son to run in order to keep up.
In sum, clipped versions of the scene are misleading and fail to show the full context. Musk did not leave his son behind as people claimed; he turned around and walked back to his son before they exited together.
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