Secret Service ‘aware’ of Elon Musk’s tweet about Harris and Biden

The US Secret Service says it is “aware” of Elon Musk’s social media post in which he claimed that “nobody is even trying” to assassinate President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr Musk later deleted the post, claiming it was a joke.

His post on Portal X, formerly Twitter, came just hours after the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday.

The tech billionaire is a close ally of Trump, who has promised to put Musk in charge of a “commission on government efficiency” if he wins a second term as US president.

Many X users criticized Musk’s comments, which were accompanied by a raised eyebrow emoji. Some said the post was a form of incitement against the US president and vice president.

The White House condemned the tweet in a statement, saying “this rhetoric is irresponsible.”

“Violence must be condemned, never encouraged or joked about,” the statement said, adding that “political violence or any kind of violence should have no place in our country.”

When the BBC contacted the US Secret Service, it responded only that it was “aware” of the entry.

“As a general rule, we do not comment on matters related to protective intelligence,” the statement added. “However, we can say that the Secret Service investigates all threats to our protected persons.”

After deleting the post, Musk tweeted that “one of the lessons I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh, doesn’t mean it’s as funny as a post on X.”

“It turns out that jokes are a lot less funny when people don’t know the context and the content is delivered in plain text,” read another post.

The controversial tech mogul is considered a close ally of Trump and formally endorsed him following another assassination attempt on the former president at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The suspect fired multiple shots, wounding Trump and killing a rally attendee.

Since then, Musk has frequently tweeted or shared messages criticizing both Biden and Harris while supporting Trump.