Elon Musk's Mother Maye, 76, Doubles Down on Controversial Defense of Son Following Election Day

Elon Musk's mother, Maye Musk, has come under fire for her controversial response to a potential slight aimed at her son following the election.

In a since-deleted tweet aimed at New York Times tech reporter Ryan Mac, the 76-year-old wrote, “I’ve heard there is going to be an Elon hit piece by @RMac18 in the @nytimes tomorrow. Sadly, Ryan is an American Vietnamese reporter. My book is a bestseller in Vietnam. I don’t think my readers will believe the article if it is hateful and/or dishonest. Let’s see…"

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Though she removed the post from her son's platform, X, others shared screenshots of the message, questioning why she needed to bring the writer's race into her concerns.

In response, Maye doubled down, "Ha! I mentioned this on X Spaces with Elon and everyone. They laughed so much. @nytimes has been lying about him for 15 years. Nothing new. It must be hard to be hateful and dishonest continuously. Hope Ryan is paid well."

As Mac has not published the potential piece in question at the time of writing, it's not clear what Maye feared he may have to say about her son, but it was clear what people thought of the way she handled it.

"Sadly, Elon’s mom is a racist POS," one reply to the repost read, while someone else commented, "Always promoting racism. Sad and twisted take."

"She’s a racist idiot. Period," a third agreed.

Someone else joked that Musk "is his own hit piece. He doesn't need that kind of help," and another questioned, "why would anyone in Vietnam even care 😂?"

"I don’t really care what Elon Musk’s mother thinks," another commenter added. "She is nobody special and raised a monster of a man."

Mac didn't directly address Maye's commentary, though he did add "american vietnamese," in quotation marks, to his bio on the platform. He also tweeted, "anyone doing any american vietnamese s--t tonight?" on the afternoon of Nov. 5.

Meanwhile, NBC News investigative reporter Tyler Kingkade also came to his defense, clarifying via X, "for the record, @RMac18 was born and raised in California. not that it matters. calling out a reporter for their ethnic heritage is never appropriate."

Kingkade also pointed to Mac's George Polk Award, a series of awards honoring "outstanding journalism," to back his credentials. "No one should ever bet on his stories being inaccurate," he concluded.

Next: Jamie Lee Curtis Shares Bold Message About "Terrible Feelings" After Election Results