Musk Says Woke Culture Targeted His Child with Evil Woke Mind Virus – And He is Right

Elon Musk is publicly escalating a personal and political fight over his transgender child, and he is using some of the harshest language of his career to do it. In posts responding to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office, Musk claims his child is suffering from what he calls a “tragic mental illness” driven by what he repeatedly labels the “evil woke mind virus.” This is a cultural force that spreads by targeting vulnerable kids, especially during confusion and crisis, and he blames leaders like Newsom for celebrating and expanding the policies that normalize it.

What Musk is saying and why he calls it a “mind virus”

Musk’s core claim is simple: a powerful cultural movement has convinced troubled young people that their distress is best resolved by changing sex identity, and it spreads socially like something contagious. That is what he means by “mind virus,” a metaphor for an idea that replicates through institutions, media, and peer pressure rather than through biology.

In his exchange with Newsom’s office, Musk refused to call Vivian Jenna Wilson his daughter and instead wrote, “I assume you’re referring to my son, Xavier, who has a tragic mental illness caused by the evil woke mind virus you push on vulnerable children. I love Xavier very much and hope he recovers.” He added that his daughters “Azure, Exa (she goes by Y) and Arcadia” love him.

Musk also pinned a post stating, “If you have a womb, you are a woman. Otherwise, you are not.”

The immediate spark was political. Musk’s America PAC reposted a clip of Newsom on “The Ezra Klein Show” where Newsom said, “There’s no governor that’s done more pro-trans legislation than I have.” Newsom made that statement while discussing transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, an issue where he had recently said it was “deeply unfair” to have transgender athletes in women’s sports during an interview with Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk on Newsom’s podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom.”

Newsom’s press office responded to the America PAC post with a jab at Musk on X: “Correct. We’re sorry your daughter hates you, Elon.”

That is where Musk turned the policy argument into a personal indictment. In his view, Newsom is not just passing laws. He is proudly building the cultural and legal framework that encourages the very pathway Musk says harmed his family.

Vivian Jenna Wilson, formerly Xavier

The conflict is happening against a real family rupture. Vivian Jenna Wilson previously went by Xavier and in 2022 filed a petition in California to change her gender and name. She dropped the surname Musk and asked to cut ties with her father, saying she “no longer lives with or wishes to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”

In the included background material, Wilson is described as coming out as transgender via an Instagram story in 2020. She began treatment for gender dysphoria in 2020 and said her mother was supportive, while her father was not. She also said she required his permission for testosterone blockers and hormone replacement therapy. In June 2022, a California judge approved her request to change her legal name and gender marker at age 18.

Wilson has also publicly criticized Musk, describing him as “cold,” “quick to anger,” and “uncaring,” and accusing him of harassing her for “femininity and queerness.” Musk, on his side, has shared anecdotes about her as a child and has framed the estrangement as part of what drove his determination to “destroy the woke mind virus.”

Musk’s “deadnaming” argument and his claim he was pressured

Musk has also described being pushed into consent through fear. In a 2024 interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson, Musk said he was “essentially tricked” into signing documents allowing his child to go on puberty blockers. He said he was told his child might commit suicide if he did not consent.

He tied this to the term “deadnaming,” which refers to calling a transgender person by their birth name. Musk said, “I lost my son, essentially. They call it deadnaming for a reason. The reason it’s called deadnaming is because your son is dead. So, my son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus.” He added that he “vowed to destroy the woke mind virus.”

This is the emotional heart of Musk’s argument. He is describing transition not as discovery, but as loss. And he is treating the surrounding social and political environment as the force that made that loss possible.

What gender dysphoria is, based on the medical definition provided

The medical excerpt provided defines gender dysphoria, according to DSM-5, as a “marked incongruence between their experienced or expressed gender and the one they were assigned at birth.” It emphasizes that the condition is associated with “clinically significant distress or impairment” in social, school, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

The same material lists potential associated struggles, including depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, poor self-esteem, and increased risk of self-harm and suicidality. It also notes that patients should be provided with psychiatric support, and that hormonal and surgical therapies are available depending on the individual case.

From the perspective you requested, this DSM framing matters because it treats gender dysphoria as a condition rooted in distress and impairment, not as a trendy identity badge. In that view, the most dangerous cultural shift is one that encourages a fast, identity-first storyline for youth who are already anxious, depressed, socially isolated, or searching for belonging.

The argument Musk is making about culture and vulnerable kids

Musk’s language is aggressive, but the logic he is pushing is consistent: if leaders brag about being the most “pro-trans” governor, and if institutions treat transition as the default proof of compassion, then vulnerable children get pulled into a pipeline that frames doubt as denial and caution as cruelty.

That is why he uses the word “evil.” He is arguing the culture does not merely offer options. It recruits, using fear, social rewards, and official validation to spread, and he is pointing at government power as the amplifier.

In his framing, the Newsom exchange is not a side drama. It is the blueprint of the whole problem: political leaders celebrate the very ideology he believes broke his family, then mock him when he protests, then act shocked when he calls it a virus.

Newsom’s press office chose mockery, not sympathy. Musk chose escalation, not restraint. And Vivian Wilson, by the account provided, has chosen distance and independence, legally and publicly.

This is why the story keeps growing. It is not only about one family. It is about whether society treats gender dysphoria primarily as a mental health condition marked by distress and impairment, or as a cultural identity to be affirmed and expanded through law and prestige. Musk is arguing that the second approach is not neutral. In his view, it spreads, it preys on vulnerable youth, and it leaves parents grieving a child who is still alive, but no longer reachable.

NP Editor: It may be that wokeness is waning a bit, but these are still cultural phenomenon that will need to be treated – and in a big way.