Elon Musk has shared a baseless conspiracy theory about comedian Ellen DeGeneres’s decision to move to the United Kingdom with her wife.
The billionaire, who is set to head Donald Trump’s newly-created Department of Government Efficiency, shared a post on Thursday suggesting DeGeneres left the US “after the election” due to her past affiliation with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
A resurfaced 2016 X, then-Twitter, post from DeGeneres sparked baseless theories on the platform.
“’Happy birthday, P Diddy, Puff Daddy, Sean Combs, or as I call him, Cuddle McSnugglestuff,” DeGeneres’s post read. “You don’t need to know why. @iamdiddy.”
A user shared a screenshot of her post, commenting: “It makes sense why she fled the country after the election.” Musk then re-shared it, adding the eyebrow-raised emoji.
Combs was arrested in September on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Federal prosecutors allege that Combs and his associates threatened, abused and coerced women and others around him “to fulfill his sexual desires” – which allegedly included forcing victims into engaging in recorded sexual activity which he referred to as “Freak Offs.”
Musk’s post comes after reports that DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi moved to the United Kingdom. While rumors have spread that the duo left due to Trump’s electoral victory, the couple actually purchased the Cotswolds house in October – well before Election Day.
An unnamed source with knowledge of their move toldThe Daily Mail this week that DeGeneres and Rossi planned to move leave before the election — but are glad to be getting away in the wake of Trump’s victory.
“As things panned out with Trump winning, she is glad she is making the move and going to be away from the US,” the source said.
The Independent has contacted DeGeneres’s representative for comment.
The billionaire’s post about DeGeneres came after a tiff with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on X.
“Just learned tonight at Mar-a-Lago that Jeff Bezos was telling everyone that @realDonaldTrump would lose for sure, so they should sell all their Tesla and SpaceX stock,” Musk posted early Thursday morning.
Bezos was quick to reply: “Nope. 100% not true.”
“Well, then, I stand corrected,” Musk responded, along with a laughing emoji.
Musk isn’t the first in Trump’s orbit to spread baseless claims about Combs.
Donald Trump Jr. previously peddled an unfounded conspiracy theory suggesting that Combs was arrested so celebrities who were affiliated with him would endorse his father’s opponent, Kamala Harris.
“We’re seeing unprecedented amounts of pay-for-play again,” Trump Jr. said earlier this month. “Again, none of this is organic. It’s a paid influencer operation. Know that. The celebrities who aren’t getting paid are getting probably paid in another way because they’re either on an Epstein list or a Diddy party list or both.”
Trump Jr. presented no concrete evidence to support this claim or to tie any celebrities to Combs. Further, many of the celebrities who endorsed Harris were signaling support for Biden and Democratic candidates long before Combs was arrested.