Podcaster and former friend of Elon Musk has revealed the text that seemingly ended their friendship, and it was all because Musk got it wrong about Covid-19.
If there's one guy you don't want to get on the wrong side of, it's Elon Musk. More than being the richest man in the world and well on the way to becoming the first-ever trillionaire, Musk has managed to infiltrate American politics due to his ties to Donald Trump, as well as taking over the tech world with the likes of X, SpaceX, and Tesla.
More than this, he's a man who's shown he doesn't like to be crossed, recently sharing DMs between him and controversial streamer, Zack "Asmongold" Hoyt.
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Someone only too familiar with Musk's fiery demeanor is podcaster-philosopher Sam Harris, who explains how a single text ended his friendship with Elon Musk.
Posting on his Substack, Harris revealed the fallout of how seemingly proving Musk wrong led to the latter severing ties.
Harris says, "I didn’t set out to become an enemy of the world’s richest man, but I seem to have managed it all the same," claiming that Musk wasn't 'hungry' for public attention until he started responding to people on Twitter (which he later bought and rebranded as X).
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Harris warns: "Let this be a cautionary tale for any of Elon's friends who might be tempted to tell the great man something he doesn't want to hear."
The pair apparently met in 2008, when Harris says Musk was on the verge of bankruptcy. He claims he helped Elon with security concerns and put him in touch with bodyguards, while they also went shooting together.
Harris admits there's some sort of irony, saying that Musk targeting him on social media has led to him having his own security concerns.
Despite being friends, things came to a head during the pandemic. Harris writes that he became concerned with Musk's posts around March 2020, especially when the billionaire posted a tweet that said: "The coronavirus panic is dumb."
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Sending a text to his supposed friend, an excerpt from Harris reads: "You have an enormous platform, and much of the world looks to you as an authority on all things technical.
“Coronavirus is a very big deal, and if we don’t get our act together, we’re going to look just like Italy very soon."
He also suggested that Elon should free up some technicians because it would be a good time to work on ventilators.
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Musk reportedly responded with a link to the CDC site saying COVID wasn't in the Top 100 causes of death in the USA and added: "Sam, you of all people should not be concerned about this."
During the exchange, Harris says Musk bet him $1 million against a bottle of $1,000 tequila that the USA wouldn't see 35,000 cases of COVID-19 - clarifying cases, not death.
Following a few sporadic messages over the next few weeks, Harris sent the following when the CDC reported 600,000 cases and 35,000 deaths in the USA: "Is (35,000 deaths + 600,000 cases) > 35,000 cases?"
Harris says that while Musk has never responded, he's still being targeted on Twitter/X to this day - even after he left the platform in 2022.
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Referring to Musk's recent commentary on foreign politics, Harris concluded, "He [Elon] regularly promotes lies and conspiracy theories manufactured by known bad actors."
With one final barb, Harris talked about how Musk's wealth has grown since Trump won the election, concluding: "Such astonishing access to resources gives Elon the chance—and many would argue the responsibility—to solve enormous problems in our world. So why spend time spreading lies on X?" Ouch, that's got to burn.