No, Elon Musk didn't write X post praising the role of CEOs after United Healthcare CEO was killed

On Dec. 4, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed on the street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, in what authorities described as a premeditated and targeted attack. 

The shooter was still at large as of Dec. 6 at 4 p.m. and police had not released a motive for the shooting. But some internet users were quick to conclude the attack was linked to Thompson’s status as a major medical insurance executive. 

That conclusion triggered a wave of memes and quips including "my empathy is out of network" and other statements highlighting consumer frustration with U.S. health insurers.

Amid the internet’s response and the police’s continuing search for the shooter, one Dec. 5 Threads post purported to show a screenshot of billionaire Elon Musk assessing the situation.

"It has been brought to my attention that some Americans are actually cheering for the gunman who killed UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson, and that they are saying this is a warning to all CEOs," read the X post screenshot. "What these people fail to understand is that without CEOs, the world would not be able to function, and as CEOs, we are responsible for the delicate balancing act of generating profits for shareholders while also ensuring that shareholders are able to maintain their own personal wealth even in spite of the typical corporate laziness and greed of middle-management and their staff. America will be destitute without us."

(Screenshot from Threads)

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stated on December 15, 2024 in a post

A video shows President Joe Biden saying, “There are no drones over the United States.”

Perhaps in an attempt to lend credibility to the idea that Musk wrote the post, it ended with "#DOGE" — an apparent reference to the Department of Government Efficiency, a new advisory team that President-elect Donald Trump tapped Musk to lead alongside fellow businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

This screenshot does not show an authentic X post from Musk, who owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X. 

Using an advanced search on X, we found that as of 3 p.m. Dec. 6, there was neither evidence that Musk ever tweeted this about CEOs — nor that Musk had mentioned UnitedHealthcare’s Thompson by name.  

A scroll through Musk’s X posts since Thompson was killed Dec. 4 also revealed no X posts that matched the Threads post screenshot. 

A wider search using Google showed only a few results, all of which appeared to feature the same doctored image purporting to be a Musk post.

We rate claims that Musk wrote this X post False.