Elon Musk Has Sharp Warning For Taylor Swift On Becoming Time's Person Of The Year
Elon Musk has shared a warning for Taylor Swift after the pop superstar was named Time magazine's 2023 Person of the Year.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO, who received the same recognition in 2021, took to his X social media platform to congratulate Swift but jokingly warned her about a potential decline in popularity, based on his own "experience."
"Some risk of popularity decline after this award. I speak from experience lol," Musk commented on Swift's post about her new recognition.
Swift has yet to address Musk's comment.
In 2021, Musk was recognized as Person of the Year by Time for "solving the globe's most intractable challenges" and "driving society's most daring and disruptive transformations," according to the magazine.
"Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too," then-Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal said at the time.
Musk, who remains the richest person in the world, showcased a seemingly humble lifestyle at the time, swearing off many possessions, including most of his mansions.
In the same year, SpaceX secured NASA's contract to return U.S. astronauts to the moon.
However, Musk has since faced a decline in popularity.
According to a Morning Consult survey, the billionaire's net favorability had dropped by 13 points among U.S. adults by the end of 2022 following his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and mass layoffs at the company.
Last month, "Breaking Twitter" author Ben Mezrich claimed on CNBC that Musk allegedly suffered a mental breakdown due to his fears his reputation was damaged by his takeover of Twitter, which has since rebranded to X.
His alleged mental health decline reportedly came after he was subjected to angry boos at Dave Chappelle's show in December last year.
"Twitter broke Elon Musk," the writer claimed. "Not only did he destroy this sort of global town hall, but he destroyed himself in the process."
A Time spokesperson emphasized that the Person of the Year designation is not an award or honor but a recognition of the individual who heavily influenced events, whether positively or negatively, during the year, according to Page Six.
The history of this recognition includes controversial figures like Adolf Hitler.
As for this year's choice, Time's current editor-in-chief, Sam Jacobs, said Swift "represents joy" and has "taken her own story and made it big enough for everyone."
Swift, in response to being named Person of the Year, expressed her gratitude to Time on Instagram Wednesday, writing: "The biggest, loudest, most aggressively over-excited thank you to @time for naming me Person of the Year."