Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk’s transgender daughter, recently announced she planned to move out of the United States following Donald Trump’s re-election. The 20-year-old, who transitioned at age 18 and legally changed her name to cut ties with her dad, told the press of grave concerns over what could happen to LGBTQ+ rights in general and, predominantly, anti-trans policies during the presidency of Trump. She said, although these were laws that might not see the light of day, she could not be comfortable staying in a country where the majority of its population shared Trump’s ideologies.
In a candid response on Threads, Wilson wrote: “I’ve thought this for a while but yesterday only confirmed it in my brain. I don’t see my future being in the United States.“.
And even if he’s only in office for 4 years, even if the anti-trans regulations magically don’t happen, all the people who willfully voted this in are not going anywhere anytime soon.” This statement underlines her disappointment with the political situation of the United States and a personal decision to leave the country because she feels certain that under Trump, life will just be unbearably hostile for trans individuals. In this regard, her announcement also reflected a complex and challenging history with the father. Publicly, since she legally changed her name and gender in 2022, she has kept her distance from Musk, who time and again has blamed their alienation on ideological forces. Musk claimed she was brainwashed by “wokisms” from élite learning institutions like the Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica.
The elite school infected her with the woke mind virus,” Musk told his biographer Walter Isaacson, adding that she became a radical anticapitalist. “She went beyond socialism to being the full communist and thinking that anybody rich was evil,” he said.
Musk called the break with Wilson “a wound” and likened it to what he had felt over the death of his firstborn son, Nevada. Musk said he has made multiple attempts to speak with her, stating, “I’ve made many overtures, but she doesn’t want to spend time with me.” In an even more fatalistic interview with conservative commentator Jordan Peterson, Musk referred to his daughter as “dead” to him. In her interview with NBC News, Wilson shared her side of the story, which described Musk as “cold” and “narcissistic,” with vivid memories serving as examples of his complete lack of empathy.
She recounted a memory, which involved Musk chiding her for her “effeminate” voice on a car ride when he visited the family. “I was in the fourth grade, and we took this road trip that I didn’t know at the time was just an ad for one of the cars-I don’t remember which one-and he was just constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high. She also denied Musk’s claim that he had been “tricked” into agreeing to her transition, insisting he had been fully informed and was aware of what her medical treatment entailed.
The estrangement has played out against a backdrop of increasingly outspoken political views by Musk. Once more politically neutral, Musk has emerged as a key Trump ally; during the most recent election cycle, he gave almost $120 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. It was a departure from his previously declared neutrality, wherein he had said that he would not be taking sides in any White House candidate, and since then, quite vocal in his praise for Trump as he first appeared with him at a rally, then full-on aligned himself with the “dark MAGA” movement. On the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, during an October rally alongside Trump, Musk described himself to supporters as “not just MAGA, I’m dark MAGA,” sending the crowd into a thunder of applause.
