While most were enjoying holiday leftovers and gearing up for the new year, Elon Musk was engaging in a heated online exchange with The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH). The tech billionaire, known for his outspoken nature, took aim at the Nine-owned publication following an opinion piece predicting a dramatic shift in his career by 2025.
I predict that the Sydney Morning Herald will continue to lose readership in 2025 for relentlessly lying to their audience and boring them to death
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2024
The article, penned by SMH technology editor David Swan, speculated that Musk would step back from his Tesla leadership to join Donald Trump’s incoming administration. Swan suggested that Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would head a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with trimming billions from government spending.
“To juggle X (formerly Twitter), Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, The Boring Company, and Neuralink is already unsustainable,” Swan wrote. “Now, with Musk entrenched in Trump’s circle, something has to give.”
The piece went on to claim that Musk’s alleged political ambitions and frequent controversies would force him to relinquish control of Tesla—a company Swan reminded readers Musk “did not actually found.”
Musk’s swift response
It didn’t take long for Musk to respond. Writing to his 209 million followers on his social media platform, X, Musk delivered his own 2025 prediction: “I predict that The Sydney Morning Herald will continue to lose readership in 2025 for relentlessly lying to their audience and boring them to death.”
Musk’s comments, unsurprisingly, ignited a wave of support from his online following. Many rallied to his defense, calling out traditional media as “propaganda” and accusing the SMH of sensationalism. Some pointed to Nine Entertainment’s declining stock price, with Musk amplifying the sentiment by agreeing that “legacy media is in a doom spiral.”
Swan’s response: “Damn, roasted”
Swan seemed unperturbed by the billionaire’s critique. Taking to X, he shared Musk’s comment with a simple response: “Damn, roasted.”