Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims ‘woke mind virus’ tricked his teenage son into becoming a trans woman

Elon Musk has said his transgender daughter was ‘killed’ by wokeness in an extraordinary interview.

The SpaceX founder and owner of X, formerly Twitter, said surgical procedures undergone by Vivian Jenna Wilson, now 20, were “child mutilation”.

Mr Musk claimed he was “tricked” into signing documents for the operation and his son was infected by a “woke mind virus”.

The billionaire has a fraught relationship with Vivian, who was born male and called Xavier, and who cut ties with Mr Musk in 2022.

When Vivian reached 18, she changed her name and gender at a Californian court and said she didn’t want to be “related to my biological father in any way”.

Speaking to conservative commentator Jordan Peterson, Mr Musk said: “So-called gender-affirming care is a terrible euphemism. It’s child mutilation and sterilisation under the guise of gender-affirming care.”

Mr Musk called the procedure “evil” and said teenagers could “greatly regret” it later.

He added: “It happened to one of my older boys, where I was essentially tricked into signing documents for Xavier, before I had any understanding of what was going on. I was told Xavier might commit suicide.”

According to Mr Musk, it was after Xavier began taking puberty blockers that he “lost [his] son”.

The interview turned to the subject of ‘deadnaming’ – calling a transgender person by the name they were given at birth.

Mr Musk said: “It’s called ‘deadnamin’ because your son is dead. My son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus. I vowed to destroy the [virus] after that.”

Vivian’s mother is Canadian author Justine Wilson, who divorced Mr Musk in 2008. The couple have six children.