Talk:Elon Musk
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![]() | There is consensus to describe Musk as a supporter of far-right political parties per RfC and to include that he received widespread criticism for what some perceived as a Nazi salute, per RfC. |
Q1: Can I write a message to Elon Musk here? (No.)
A1: No. The "Talk:Elon Musk" page is not for writing messages to Musk. It is only for discussing changes to the Wikipedia article about him. Writing a message to Musk here is pointless and disruptive, and such messages will be removed as an improper use of the page. Q2: Can you update the article to call Musk a "business magnet"? (No.)
A2: No. Musk once suggested in an interview that his Wikipedia article be changed to describe him as a "business magnet" rather than a magnate. The tone of that interview was not very serious; he also claimed to be an alien.[1] Wikipedia doesn't have to do what Musk says, and this request has been made and declined dozens of times already. New requests may be removed without a response so that other discussions are not disrupted. Q3: Should Musk be identified as South African in the opening sentence?
A3: Musk is a US citizen (since 2002) born and raised in South Africa, and also acquired Canadian citizenship via his mother. Including these nationalities in the opening sentence in a balanced way would be complex, and the consensus is that they should instead be explained later in the lead. Q4: Can you change "Tesla CEO" to "Tesla Technoking"?
A4: No, because he is still CEO according to company records and that is a common corporate title that readers will understand, unlike "Technoking". The goal of the article is to inform people, which would be hindered by raising a confusing technicality. Q5: Should the mention of Errol Musk having an interest in an emerald mine be removed in view of Elon's denials?
A5: While Elon today vehemently disputes any history with an emerald mine, he formerly accepted and even confirmed it. Specifically, a 2014 report originally printed in the San Jose Mercury News (and cited in the article) stated that Errol Musk had "a stake in" a mine. Elon affirmed his father's mine involvement in an interview with Jim Clash, a career interviewer of public figures, that was published by Forbes and withdrawn without explanation a few months later. Elon biographer Ashlee Vance likewise confirmed Errol's mining interest, with Elon's objections but not denials, in a 2020 interview report with Elon. Errol has stated that he received hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of emeralds from his dealings. Q6: Should "Bachelor of Arts in Physics" be "Bachelor of Science" instead?
A6: No. Although it may seem counterintuitive, "Bachelor of Arts" is awarded for all undergraduate degrees at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. His economics degree however is from the Wharton School which does award a "Bachelor of Science" degree. Q7: Should the article acknowledge doubts about Musk's academic record?
A7: Wikipedia policy on biographies of living persons requires that negative information about a person must be attributed to reliable published sources, and excludes both self-published sources (e.g. Twitter threads) and court trial records. The article states that sources disagree about when Musk obtained bachelor degrees, and that he did not attend Stanford for any significant amount of time. Any doubts beyond this require appropriate sources. Q8: Why doesn't this article describe Musk as an engineer?
A8: Musk is chief engineer of SpaceX, a title that applies within the company and that the press regularly mentions. He is not a professional engineer, a distinction within engineering that carries certain legal privileges in the United States, nor has he completed an engineering training program, nor has he ever been hired as an engineer. The article therefore does not include any of these claims. It does note that, from time to time, Musk has made initial product proposals at his companies that his trained engineers then research and develop. He does hold IEEE Honorary Membership. Q9: Why doesn't the article identify Musk as co-founder of PayPal?
A9: Because that could mislead readers that Musk was involved in the creation of the PayPal service and brand, when he was not. Instead, as the article states, he co-founded a company (X.com Corporation) that acquired the company that had developed PayPal (Confinity Inc.) and then renamed itself as PayPal, Inc. Q10: Why does this page include criticism of Musk's actions and stances?
A10: Musk is criticized/praised a lot in many reliable sources, and as such we need to talk about these criticisms and praise. To quote from Wikipedia's policy on a neutral point of view, articles must represent "fairly, proportionately, and, as far as possible, without editorial bias, all the significant views that have been published by reliable sources on a topic." Q11: Why is this a "good article" when some people consider Musk a bad person?
A11: "Good article" on Wikipedia refers to the way the article is written, not what kind of person Musk is. Good articles have been found to satisfy Wikipedia editorial standards for accuracy, verifiability and balanced presentation. Q12: Why doesn't this page call Musk African American?
A12: African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. Reliable sources do not use this term to describe Musk. References
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![]() | Elon Musk is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination was archived. For older candidates, please check the archive. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() | Elon Musk has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page. |
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Add a Trump-Elon split subject or paragraph under politics?
He has been criticizing trump all day and now he tweeted trump IS on the epstein list. He obviously isn't with trump anymore. Yesyesmrcool (talk) 19:25, 5 June 2025 (UTC)
- This event definitely needs to be mentioned in the article, but I think it's best to wait and see how this plays out before calling this the "Trump-Musk split." NesserWiki (talk) 19:35, 5 June 2025 (UTC)
Nomination of Elon Musk–Donald Trump feud for deletion

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Elon Musk–Donald Trump feud until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.
Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished.InfiniteNexus (talk) 21:34, 5 June 2025 (UTC)
Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry?
The article states "He is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry." with two footnote references. The first reference does not address Pennsylvania Dutch. The second reference states it without attribution. Reading other sources suggests he is of Dutch or English South African ancestry, which I imagine would be Boer. (?) The only Pennsylvania connection I've seen is from his schooling at U. of Pa. after emigrating from South Africa via Canada. Is there any actual basis for the "Pennsylvania Dutch" part? Scryer~enwiki (talk) 21:41, 5 June 2025 (UTC)
Feud in the lead
Since the article for the Musk-Trump feud has been AfD'd, should it be removed from the lead temporarily until that's closed? I support keeping the "current event" disclaimer at the top of the article as long as the other page exists, though. GrandDuchyConti 💜(talk) 22:05, 5 June 2025 (UTC)
- Even if that dumpster fire of an article by some grace of stupidity survives deletion, the topic is not lead-worthy. Zaathras (talk) 23:40, 5 June 2025 (UTC)
- Lead should follow body and there is no way a due weighting of the body gives this enough space that it should be included in the lead. If a year from now there is still some feud and it makes a huge impact on his life then it is lead worthy. Czarking0 (talk) 04:43, 6 June 2025 (UTC)
- Until there is another major news cycle about his latest wizard wheeze. No it should not be in the lede. Slatersteven (talk) 10:16, 6 June 2025 (UTC)
- So is this terribly important feud still on? Slatersteven (talk) 14:32, 7 June 2025 (UTC)
- Not as much no. Elon Musk deleted his tweet on the Epstein files, but floated the idea of a new third party. GrandDuchyConti 💜(talk) 14:35, 7 June 2025 (UTC)
- So if (a big if) he launched a third party that (and not this feud) should go the lede. Slatersteven (talk) 14:39, 7 June 2025 (UTC)
- Not as much no. Elon Musk deleted his tweet on the Epstein files, but floated the idea of a new third party. GrandDuchyConti 💜(talk) 14:35, 7 June 2025 (UTC)
- Per Czarking0, lacks due weight for an such a summary level article with multiple child articles. At Views of Elon Musk there is also a one sentence summary, meaning at this parent article very little is also due if any, nowhere near the lead. CNC (talk) 14:44, 7 June 2025 (UTC)
Minor typo
Paragraph 3, first mention of Trump: " In January 2025, he was appointed head of Trump's newly created DOGE." Please change "Trump" to either "President Donald Trump" or just "Donald Trump," because it's the first mention of him in this article. I'm not saying this out of respect for TACO, just noting it should be gramatically correct. TeamEquestria (talk) 13:54, 6 June 2025 (UTC)
Infobox image
Yesterday someone changed the infobox image to one where Musk has a black eye. I don't think we need to debate this one, but when it was reverted the image was changed. It was reverted by me and another person to an image that was used a day ago, but two hours ago the image was changed again to an older image that we were using not too long ago. I don't want to edit war so I'm not going to touch it, but which image should we be using? What was the consensus before this happened? ―Panamitsu (talk) 22:36, 6 June 2025 (UTC)
- Also Template:Elon Musk series now has a different image than the one used in this article. ―Panamitsu (talk) 22:38, 6 June 2025 (UTC)
- Someone has just re-added the black eye image to Template:Elon Musk series. Also Template:Elon Musk has a different image to the rest. ―Panamitsu (talk) 23:11, 6 June 2025 (UTC)
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