Elon Musk Got In A Twitter Flame War Over A Pic Of Him With Jeffrey Epstein's Associate

Tesla's CEO is getting into it on social media again. Elon Musk started up a flame war with a reporter who shared a photo of Musk with Ghislaine Maxwell, a well-known associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Musk, however, claimed that it was just a photobomb.

It started with Ken Klippenstein, a reporter for The National, sharing a tweet on July 2 that featured the photo, writing "Be a shame if people just replied to all of Elon Musk’s tweets with this pic."

Elon Musk also tweeted on July 2, writing "Tesla will make fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim."

After someone replied to the tweet with the photo, Musk wrote, "Someone is paying for hundreds of bots & trolls to push this lame Vanity Fair photobomb pic. I wonder who …"

After someone told Elon that it was Klippenstein who started the campaign to reply to Musk's tweets with the photos, the Tesla CEO replied saying "Oh yeah, Klip Einstein, pseudojournalist & douche-about-town."

Klippenstein didn't let the insult get by him, quoting the tweet and writing, "Elon this is one of the worst dunks I’ve ever seen. Let me put this in terms you’ll understand: If you were my employee, I’d fire you."

Klippenstein was referring to a Marie Claire article written by Musk's first wife, in which she claimed he said to her, "if you were my employee, I'd fire you."

Musk eventually blocked Klippenstein, writing, "I only block people as a direct insult."

That tweet included a meme of Klippenstein's face on Ralph Wiggum from The Simpsons and the words, "I'm a journalist!"

Klippenstein was eventually unblocked by Musk, but he took the opportunity to share a screenshot of a Buzzfeed headline from 2019 which detailed a dinner party Musk attended with Epstein and other tech billionaires.

Epstein was a financier and sex offender who was arrested for sex trafficking in July 2019. He died in jail a month later.