Elon Musk’s prominence in the U.S. government is not something many people saw coming before 2025. With his involvement in Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter (now X), Musk is not only the wealthiest person in the world, but now a government department director and member of President Donald Trump’s inner circle. Musk has long been a polarizing figure in the cultural zeitgeist, and with his new role, he’s come under further scrutiny for actions like cutting federal spending by firing thousands of federal workers, and giving what many believed to be a Nazi salute at an Inauguration Day event. If you’re sick of hearing about Musk, you wouldn’t be the only one — one of the loudest denouncers of the tech billionaire is his 20-year-old daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson.
Wilson is Musk’s oldest child, tied with her twin brother Griffin. Her mother Justine was Musk’s first wife, and the two share six children (including their first child, Nevada, who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome at 10 weeks old). Since his divorce from Justine in 2008, Musk has fathered at least eight more children with three women. (Ahem, will the “family values” in the room please stand up?) Wilson’s relationship with her father publicly splintered and has been highly politicized since she came out as trans and began going by her new name and gender in 2022. While she keeps an active presence on social media, Wilson hasn’t done much press — until now.
In a March 20 cover story with Teen Vogue, Wilson got quite candid about how she feels about her estranged father and his entrance into politics.
“I haven’t talked to him since 2020. That was almost half a decade ago at this point. Thank God,” she told the publication. Because of her distance from her father, Wilson said she’s just as out of the loop as everybody else when it comes to his many children, too. “If I had a nickel for every time I found out I had half-siblings through Reddit, I’d have two nickels,” she said. “I don’t really give a f*ck what they do. This is not my problem, OK? I’ve seen X [Æ A-Xii] once, when he was very little.”
Since changing her birth certificate, Wilson has clashed with Musk over damaging comments he’s made — calling her “killed by the woke mind virus” in an interview, alleging that he was “tricked” into consenting to her gender affirming care, and deadnaming her. She said those experiences motivated her to advocate for trans youth.
“As someone who did transition as a minor, I feel like there’s so much villainization of that, and I would really like to raise awareness of the fact that trans care for minors, especially puberty blockers, is really, really important,” Wilson said. “So maybe stop demonizing these literal children or the people around these children who are just trying to help them to feel comfortable in their own skin.”
However, while Wilson recalls Musk being far less tolerant than her mother when she came out, she dislikes the narrative that her transition is what inspired Musk’s far right ideology. “It’s such a convenient narrative, that the reason he turned right is because I’m a f*cking tr*nny, and that’s just not the case,” she said. “Him going further on the right, and I’m going to use the word ‘further’ … is not because of me.”
Speaking of what’s happening on the right, Wilson is decidedly not OK with many of the decisions of the current administration, in which her father plays a not-insignificant role. “It’s terrifying. Every time I open my phone to read the news, I kind of just stare at the wall for 10 minutes,” she said. “It’s horrifying what they’re doing, not only to the trans community, but also to migrants, to communities of color, to so many marginalized communities that are being systematically targeted by the new administration and having protections revoked. It’s cartoonishly evil.”
Wilson said she doesn’t comment on everything her father does that she disagrees with, but has felt the need to denounce some of his actions. “I’ll see things about him in the news and think, ‘That’s f*cking cringe, I should probably post about this and denounce it,’ which I have done a few times,” Wilson said. “The Nazi salute sh*t was insane. Honey, we’re going to call a fig a fig, and we’re going to call a Nazi salute what it was. That sh*t was definitely a Nazi salute … But other than that, I don’t give a f*ck about him. I really don’t. It’s annoying that people associate me with him. I just don’t have any room to care anymore.” (Musk has stated he’s not a Nazi and has dismissed criticisms of his gestures.)
Wilson made clear that despite her father’s political and financial prominence, she isn’t scared of him. “He’s a pathetic man-child,” she said. “Why would I feel scared of him? Ohhh, he has so much power. Nah, nah, nah. I don’t give a f*ck. Why should I be scared of this man? Because he’s rich? Oh, no, I’m trembling. Ooh, shivering in my boots here. I don’t give a f**k how much money anyone has. I don’t. I really don’t. He owns Twitter. OK. Congratulations.”
Wilson is currently studying languages in Tokyo, Japan (and made it clear she’s been financially independent from Musk since 2020). She went to school abroad with hopes of becoming a translator, but with her newfound public voice, said she is also looking into other pursuits like modeling and streaming, and would love to be a contestant in a drag pageant. “People thrive off of fear,” she said. “I’m not giving anyone that space in my mind. The only thing that gets to live free in my mind are drag queens.”