 "Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk along with his children at the Blair House, in Washington, DC, USA. While it looks cute, some are questioning why the Doge chief keeps bringing his kids for meetings. PTI")
A search of Elon Musk online brings up several million results. But among the top searches for the ‘First Buddy’ are his children. It seems that people across the world are quite interested in knowing more about the Tesla and X chief’s many children; he has 12 of them and recently, another influencer, Ashley St Clair, claimed to be the mother of his child.
It’s not totally surprising to see that the public is keen to know about his progeny. After all, he keeps parading them at meetings — be it the one in the Oval Office with US President Donald Trump or with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House in Washington, DC.
But what’s the reason behind the richest man parading his kids around? Is it about being the world’s most amazing dad or is there something more to it?
Musk’s ‘bring your children to work’ motto
On February 11 when Elon Musk appeared in the Oval Office alongside President Donald Trump to discuss his latest slashing of federal funding, he brought with him his four-year-old son, X Æ A-Xii, better known to the world as X.
“Great guy,” Trump said of the toddler. “He’s a high IQ individual.”
X, on the other hand, had his own agenda. Dressed in a tan pea coat and a collared shirt, he could be seen standing at the corner of the Resolute Desk, picking his nose. Even as Musk droned on about the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and the work they were doing, X seemed uninterested, and at one point could even be heard saying, “I want you to shush your mouth.”
At another point, he could be heard telling Trump, “I need to go pee.” More embarrassingly, the four-year-old could also be heard saying, “You’re not the president you need to go away.”
Then a few days later, X and two more of his siblings accompanied Elon Musk and his partner, Shivon Zilis , to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House. The PM then gifted the mini-Musks with gifts , which we all know made for great visuals.
However, these are not the only two instances when Musk has chosen to bring his children along with him for meetings or to work. In September 2023, Musk was accompanied by X once again as he toured his newly constructed Tesla gigafactory in Texas . During this visit, Musk also met with Hungarian President Katalin Novak to discuss the global demographic crisis.
Musk has also taken X with him for meetings with then Twitter staff in October 2022. A Washington Post report said that X was running around the headquarters as Musk attempted to continue discussions about Twitter’s future. Moreover, Musk’s son had seemingly taken over the conference room.
And even in 2015, Musk brought five of his children along with him for the unveiling of the Tesla facility in Silicon Valley. As analysts and reporters waited for the big moment, his offspring could be seen chasing through the hallways.
A doting dad or….
But what is Musk trying to achieve by parading his children? Is it about him showing the world his dedication to his 12 kids or is it something more?
For Musk followers and supporters, the tech titan’s decision to bring his kids to events is nothing but him being a doting dad. “It’s cute,” say many of his loyalists, who argue that it shows off Musk’s human side, beyond just being a billionaire extraordinaire.
Also, it’s an extension of Musk’s pronatalist views. The billionaire is a known advocate of the movement, which espouses people to have more children. In fact, Musk believes that having many children is not only a social imperative but a necessity for the continuation of society. According to him, declining birth rates are “not just a crisis, but the crisis,” and he’s contributing to efforts to bring society back from the brink of collapse by having more children.
Hence, by bringing his children to events, he’s showing his solidarity for the cause.
Musk’s former partner, Grimes, said he took X out to events, as he saw him as his “protégé”. Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2022, she said, “I think E (Elon Musk) is really seeing him as a protégé and bringing him to everything and stuff.… X is out there. His situation is like that.”
There’s also the theory posited by Walter Isaacson, the author of Musk’s biography. In a podcast, he said that Musk is “deeply committed” to his children and is “almost obsessed by them”.
But not everyone is convinced. There are many who believe that Musk’s decision to take his children to events is about the optics. Kurt Braddock, an American University professor of public communication told the BBC, “The inclusion of the kids in many public appearances is very much a politician move or a political move to make him seem a bit more personable (and) take a human approach to how the public views him.”
He is also of the opinion that is a good distraction tool that serves Musk well. “I do think that there is a bit of a strategy here trying to draw attention to some things while diverting attention to other things,” he said.
Arwa Mahdawi wrote in The Guardian, “I don’t think there is anything cute about Musk parading his poor children in front of the cameras. Rather, it feels completely self-serving.”
Emily Armick, former counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and author of the New York Times-bestselling Democracy in Retrograde also agrees with this view. In a Rolling Stone report, she is quoted as saying, “I see it as part of the very clear propaganda regime that is the Trump administration. They are very, very focused on optics and part of that is this ‘pro-family agenda’.
“When Musk brings his child into a professional work environment, the child functions as a prop to deflect from the obvious harm that he’s trying to inflict on the US government and the American people,” she said.
Others argue that Musk is using his children just as parent influencers would so as to deflect attention from himself. “Elon Musk is very clearly trying to make himself seem more human because right now, he’s one of the most hated figures in America. It’s exactly like a parenting influencer using their kid to enhance their brand and to get attention,” said Jo Piazza, author and host of U_nder the Influence_, a podcast examining the role of influencers in society.
What’s even more concerning is that Musk continues to parade his children despite the fact that Grimes has said that her children “shouldn’t be in public like this”.
Maybe, Elon Musk should take a page out of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jessica Ardern . She made headlines and received praise in 2018 when she became the first world leader to attend the UN General Assembly with her baby.
With inputs from agencies