Between the running of six different companies (including Tesla), the fathership of 14 children (one just within the last week), and a role as one of the most senior advisers to President Donald Trump (running the Department of Government Efficiency), Elon Musk is an exceedingly busy man.
Despite this, Musk has gone to great lengths to convince the public and his followers that he still has plenty of time to play video games and preserve the honor of his placement at the top of numerous gaming leaderboards.
Or does he?
The tech billionaire allegedly recently had a gargantuan TV installed in his office inside the White House to play video games. On his orders, Politico reported that the TV was recently procured for his office in the Eisenhower building on the White House complex. The office is the epicenter of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Trump has tasked with slashing the federal budget and workforce.
Musk’s Complicated Politics
While President Trump has regularly praised Musk for his “fantastic work,” citizens worldwide have begged to differ. Musk’s work thus far has outraged political opponents and generated an ever-mounting international boycott of Tesla. Even though Musk’s sizable donations endeared him to Trump in the first place during the 2024 campaign, Musk’s involvement with Trump has proven to be a very costly decision for the billionaire, clearing an estimated $100 billion off his net worth since the start of the year.
While Musk retains the enthusiastic support of the president, who just this week held a Tesla automobile exhibition outside of the White House for the media, the vast majority of the American public views him as less than favorable.
Gaming as a Last Resort
Musk still has video games to turn to as his businesses flounder, his children publicly disown him, and his bid to play a critical role in Trump’s second term sours. He has long courted the gaming community’s admiration, underpinning his vast, predominantly male, online fan base.
To this end, Musk regularly posts gameplay highlights to his 219 million followers on X, the social media platform he bought a few years ago. His name has been featured on the global leaderboards for many of his favorite games for years. When he was a much more favorably viewed figure of less public interest, gaming was how Musk cultivated an enraptured audience of young men.
Is Musk’s Gaming Falsified?
However, Musk’s claim to be a world-class player has now been scrutinized. Musk became a more public-facing figure, so his daily routine was overtly mapped out for the public to see. This has bumped up against his prior privacy and made many of Musk’s alleged gaming sessions seem manufactured or (even worse within the gaming community) the result of him paying someone to make it look like he’s a significant gamer.
In the week of Trump’s inauguration in January, Musk hosted a livestream as he played the action role-playing game Path of Exile 2. The tech billionaire was eager to point out that he played on the highest difficulty level.
“This is max difficulty on Hardcore. If there’s a way to get higher difficulty, I don’t know what it is. This is everything maxed out,” Musk told viewers.
However, some gamers noted that, despite the high level, Musk’s physical gameplay appeared to be that of a newcomer in the video. “I can say after watching an hour of this live stream that I would put, like, $100,000 or more on a bet … that Elon did not level this character from level 1 to level 90 himself,” the YouTube gamer Cynicalex posted.
The controversy deepened when gamers spotted that Musk’s Path of Exile account had been active when he could not have played himself. Gamers claimed that Musk’s Path of Exile account had been active at times when he could not have been playing. This included the hours he was visible on television, standing behind Trump at the inauguration.
Gold to Mold
For several years, everything Elon Musk touched turned gold. He was a widely beloved, somewhat mysterious figure who was seen as a benevolent billionaire who was actively funding the forward progress of humankind. But as of late, everything Musk touches turns to mold. Now, even his once pristine gaming legacy is in danger of being caught in the crossfire of Musk’s actions.
