Tech billionaire Elon Musk plunged deeply into the Pizzagate conspiracy theory this week before erasing the post.
The post on X, titled “Pizzagate is real,” claimed that the theory had never been proved false since the expert who debunked it “went to jail for child porn.”
The meme drew a wide assortment of reactions from Mr. Musk’s followers on X. Some of his fans were happy to see him endorse Pizzagate, while many others expressed concern.
Pizzagate is a conspiracy theory that sprang up in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election that accused Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats of running a child sex trafficking operation out of the basement of a District of Columbia pizza restaurant.
The theory has been debunked by some but has made a recent return to relevance after Mr. Musk began posting about it last week. Originally, his posts were replies to other users who were boosting the conspiracy theory, and those posts remain live.
The meme is the latest in recent Musk posts that rile up some X users. This month, he questioned why many American Jews support illegal immigration.
Mr. Musk has since rebuked accusations he’s antisemitic, even visiting Isreal to see sites of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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