Elon Musk says his young son “x” punched him in face

A bruised Elon Musk explained away a black eye during a White House appearance on Friday by saying that his 5-year-old son had punched him in the face while the two were playing around.

Musk made the comments during an Oval Office event with Donald Trump marking the end of the billionaire’s formal cost-cutting role in the president’s administration.

Musk’s visibly bruised right eye caught reporters’ attention. Asked about the injury, Musk said he was “horsing around” with his son, who is named X.

“And I said, ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face.’ And he did,” Musk said.

Trump then interjected. “That was X that did that? …X could do it. If you knew X.”

When he was initially asked about the bruise, Musk brushed it off with his usual cryptic humor. “I wasn’t anywhere near France,” he quipped, referencing a recent incident where President Emmanuel Macron’s wife shoved him in the face.

Musk said he didn’t feel much at the time but it bruised later.

The Tesla CEO is leaving the Trump administration after leading a tumultuous cost-cutting drive, during which he upended several federal agencies but ultimately failed to deliver the generational savings he had sought.

Billionaire Elon Musk bade farewell to Donald Trump in an extraordinary Oval Office appearance Friday, sporting a black eye, brushing aside drug abuse claims and vowing to stay a “friend and advisor” to the US president.

As the world’s richest person bowed out of his role as Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief, the Republican hailed Musk’s “incredible service” and handed him a golden key to the White House.

Also read: Musk vows to stay Trump’s ‘friend’ in bizarre black-eyed farewell

But Trump insisted that Musk was “really not leaving” after a turbulent four months in which his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered whole agencies and slashed foreign aid.

“He’s going to be back and forth,” said Trump, showering praise on the tech tycoon for what he called the “most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations.”

South-African born Musk, wearing a black T-shirt with the word “Dogefather” in white lettering and a black DOGE baseball cap, said many of the $1 trillion savings he promised would take time to bear fruit.

“I look forward to continuing to be a friend and advisor to the president,” he said.