A quote attributed to billionaire Elon Musk about permanently banning Pride flags from classrooms was published by a satirical website. There is no record of Musk making the remark.
Posts on social media, opens new tab shared a photo of Musk with text across the top of the image attributed to the Tesla and SpaceX founder that reads, “Pride flags should be banned from classrooms. Permanently!”
Reuters Image
However, a search on Musk’s platform X did not yield any matching results, and the phrase does not appear in any company press releases. No reliable news outlet has quoted him as saying this.
Esspots, a website that describes itself as satirical, attributed the same phrase to Musk in a September 2024 headline, opens new tab.
Musk has criticized progressive views and policies, such as protections for transgender people, as a “woke mind virus” and blamed the mindset for his estrangement from one of his children.
In February 2024, he said on X, opens new tab: “Most people don’t realize how much the woke virus is poisoning the minds of their kids. Better to take them out of school than allow Soviet-level indoctrination to take place.”
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced his intent to appoint Musk to a position aimed at creating a more efficient government. The move will give greater influence to the world’s richest man, who donated millions of dollars to help Trump get elected.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
VERDICT
No evidence. There is no evidence Elon Musk suggested permanently banning Pride flags from classrooms.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.
