"Tesla Is Going Down": Did Musk Actually Cry To Trump?
In late March, an exploding audio of tech giant Elon Musk crying to US President Donald Trump were leaked. The audio clip widely circulated through social media platforms. The clip appeared to show Musk expressing concern over Tesla motors future, saying, “Tesla is going down”. Trump allegedly was heard as saying “it’s okay…Soon everybody will be buying again”. Social media went haywire wondering if the audio was real or just another AI marvel.
Apparently, Musk was talking about his electric vehicle company Tesla which has plunged to its weakest in nearly three years. The dip is largely attributed to backlash against Musk’s recent political stances, global competition and people waiting for a refresh to its highest-selling electric vehicle Model Y, as reported by Reuters.
After being prominently positioned to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has led mass federal government layoffs in early 2025. He also found himself tangled in other controversies as well. Tesla’s shares went down after Politico reported that Musk was planning to step down from his role as an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump soon, as administration insiders increasingly view the billionaire as a political liability.
Another leaked audio clip allegedly featured US Vice President J D Vance going against Musk to Trump. While the alleged voice of J D Vance did not take Musk’s name directly, he was heard as saying phrases like “he is from South Africa” and “he wants to tank down the economy and his cars”, which netizens took as reference to Musk, who was born in South Africa, and owns Tesla. However, Vance’s communications director came forward declining the news.
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Vance also reportedly said that the voice in the clip was not his but AI-generated. Taking to X, he wrote, “I’m not surprised this guy doesn’t have the intelligence to recognize this fact, but I wonder if he has the integrity to delete it now that he knows it’s false”. He also warned to take legal action against the user who posted it, if it was not removed, adding, “otherwise, it will be a case of defamation”.
The audio clip of Musk complaining to Trump was shared by an X account named @YourAnonCentral (Anonymous). The clip was apparently posted on March 31st, but with a quote tweet of an earlier post from March 12, which read: “So it turns out Musk was audibly sobbing at the Oval Office which may have triggered the bizarre Tesla Whitehouse promo”. On March 11, Trump and Musk showcased Tesla vehicles in front of the White House.
The clip went viral on all social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram, X, YouTube, and Reddit. Netizens largely wondered if it was real or an AI production. While majority voiced criticism of Musk along with doubt of authenticity of the audio.
The audio clip cannot be labelled as authentic, as there are no verifiable evidence to back the conversation ever happened. No mainstream media reported on the issue. Given the high profiles of individuals involved in the leaked audio, any authentic leaked conversations would most certainly be a breaking news for mainstream media in the region.
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The said audio clip first appeared on TikTok, before going viral on other platforms as well. The clip included a TikTok watermark with the handle @elonmuskarmy3, which suggested that the clip was originally posted by that user.
A version of the post was partially archived on March 27, 2025, via the Wayback Machine internet archive tool, showing it had been shared 16 hours earlier with the caption, “Leaked audio from meeting between Trump and Musk”, reported Snopes. However, the TikTok account @elonmuskarmy3 does not exist now.
An Instagram account named @rindoamaestarte shared the clip by writing, “Real or fake, WE DO NOT HAVE CONFIRMATION YET’ HOWEVER THE PERSON I’VE SEEN UPLOADING THESE AUDIO CLIPS HAS BEEN GETTING SUPPRESSED”. The account was also reportedly appeared in several TikTok posts. It led to a partially archived version dated March 23, 2025. The date is taken to be the earliest known instance of the clip being shared. It was captioned: “Repost! We do not have confirmation if this is AI or real there is a mole on Tik tok uploading these clips if we can try and get confirmation we may better understand the relationship at play in the White House”.
The account no longer exist on Instagram .
DeepFake tool developed by University at Buffalo Media Forensic Lab, assessed the audio clip to be AI-generated. It said the probability of it being fake is between 98.8% and 100%, reported Snopes. Another DeepFake developed by Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security said that the audio is 87.4 percentage fake.
(With inputs from agencies)
