Elon Musk Tells Bob Iger, “Go F*** Yourself”

On November 2, Disney CEO Bob Iger attended the New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York City. The Summit is an annual event where prominent CEOs and other notable figures gather to talk about the business landscape and current events. This year’s event included not only a conversation with Bob Iger, but also interviews with Vice President Kamala Harris, former US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, Bridgerton and Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

During Musk’s interview, the controversial CEO — who also owns X (formerly Twitter) — was asked about the boycott the company is currently facing. Multiple companies — including Disney — pulled their ads from X when Musk sent out a tweet that many deemed to be racist in nature. The social media platform, since Musk’s takeover, has also experienced a large increase in hate speech.

Musk himself is frequently accused of supporting anti-Semitic ideas and agreeing with anti-Semitic tweets.

Musk admitted that the ad pulls could “kill” the company.

“What this advertising boycott is going to do is, it is going to kill the company. And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company.”

However, that wasn’t all that he had to say. Earlier in the day, Iger had explained why Disney decided to pull its advertising from the huge platform. But Musk didn’t really have any interest in hearing excuses. In less than flattering terms, he told Iger — and everyone else — what he thought.

“Don’t advertise. If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself,” Musk said. “Go f*** yourself, is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, don’t advertise.”

He also admitted that he wasn’t fully innocent of being part of the cause of the mass advertising exodus.

“I should, in retrospect, not have replied to that particular post, and should have expanded in greater length about what I meant.”

“I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me,” he added, calling it “one of the most foolish” things he had said on the platform. Later, after calling Sorkin “Jonathan,” Musk quipped that “what I am trying to illustrate is that, sometimes I say the wrong thing.”

The trouble really began nearly two weeks ago. The website Media Matters published a study showing the rapid rise of hate speech on X. Although the platform does have a policy against hate speech, it doesn’t really appear to be doing anything about it.

The Media Matter study showed that X was allowing materials supporting Adolf Hitler and Nazi Party propaganda next to ads placed by companies like Disney, Bravo/NBCUniversal, Apple, and Comcast. When the companies found out that was happening, they quickly announced they were pulling their advertising.

Bob Iger has spoken out against the rise in anti-Semitism that has taken place since Hamas — a Palestinian terrorist group — launched an attack on Israel in early October. He condemned the violent attacks and said that Disney would be donating $2 million to humanitarian aid groups.

During his interview with host Andrew Ross Sorkin, Iger also spoke about his second go-around as Disney CEO. He confirmed that when his contract expires at the end of 2026 he will be stepping down. He has no plans to extend the contract a second time.

Do you think Elon Musk was right to criticize Bob Iger after his anti-Semitic tweet? Let us know in the comments!