Elon Musk couldn’t resist making a penis pun after it was reported that he exposed himself to a SpaceX flight attendant and propositioned her in 2016.
“Finally, we get to use Elongate as scandal name. It’s kinda perfect,” the Tesla CEO tweeted on Friday, adding a laughing emoji.
Musk was referencing a March 2021 tweet in which he first commented: “If there’s ever a scandal about me, *please* call it Elongate.”
The joke wasn’t received well by Musk’s critics online.
“You’re accused of exposing yourself to a flight attendant, asking her for sex in exchange for a horse and paying her half a million dollars to keep quiet. Not exactly a laughing matter,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another Twitter user commented: “This guy is the same as Trump. ‘When you’re a star they let you do it’.”
Musk called the woman who accused him of sexual misconduct a “far-left actress” who has “a major political axe to grind” — and challenged her to verify her claims by describing a part of his anatomy “not known by the public.”
Musk took to Twitter late Thursday and said that the “wild accusations are utterly untrue.” The allegations were first reported by Insider.
The tech mogul was accused of exposing himself to a flight attendant aboard one of his private planes in 2016 — and SpaceX later paid the woman $250,000 to settle her sexual misconduct claim, according to the bombshell report.
Musk was also accused of rubbing the flight attendant’s leg without permission and offering to buy her a horse if she gave him an erotic massage onboard the plane, Insider reported Thursday, citing documents and interviews.
Hours after Insider published the story, Musk challenged the friend of the accuser who is reported to have been told about the alleged incident soon after it happened.
Musk tweeted: “But I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me ‘exposed’ — describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, …) that isn’t known by the public.”
“She won’t be able to do so, because it never happened.”
Musk was responding on Twitter to a commenter who wondered: “Where were these wild accusations against @elonmusk before he took a stand against the establishment?”
“Exactly,” tweeted Musk, who recently announced his intention to buy Twitter for $44 billion and take it private.