The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) in which he spoke about Elon Musk’s social media platform. He captioned the video: “How has Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) influenced our democracy? On a new pod, we’re unpacking Big Tech’s election disruption with Casey Newton, editor of Platformer, and Renée DiResta, research professor at Georgetown University. New episode out now!”
After the podcast went live on X, claiming Elon Musk is “warping democracy,” Musk exploded at Stewart online, calling him a “propagandist.” Musk and Stewart are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, so this continued with a lively social media spat. It became a battle between the billionaire and the late-night host and comedian.
Jon Stewart is an extremely skilled propagandist disguised as a truth-teller
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 19, 2026
While watching a segment on Stewart’s The Weekly Show about the effect that X has on democracy, Musk exploded. Musk bought (then) Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion and renamed it X, stating that he was doing so to facilitate free speech, or, as the South African billionaire put it, “upsetting the far right and the far left equally.”
Stewart, 63, on his podcast, said that Musk “has pushed this idea that undocumented, non-citizen voting is rampant, it is sowing the seeds of our destruction, and we cannot do it.”
“The irony of it all is [because of] this guy’s platform, this guy’s algorithm, which he is in charge of… he is a far more relevant actor in the warping of our democracy, through his money and his algorithm, than any measure of undocumented, non-citizen voting will ever be,” Stewart added about Musk.
The podcaster then anticipated what Musk’s response would be. “What his argument – and I think his people’s argument – would be, is: ‘Now that we’re getting uncensored material, now that the First Amendment has primacy, people move to the right because they learn the truth,” Jon said.
However, Stewart said, “The truth is that the algorithm incentivizes the misinformation from the right, and he designs it.”
What made Musk really furious was when Stewart said it was ironic that he worries about democracy when there is “no more relevant actor” than he is in “warping” it. This led to Musk, 54, giving a quick response, writing, “Jon Stewart is an extremely skilled propagandist disguised as a truth-teller.”
On Thursday, the fight continued with Musk replying, “Not as good as you! Stop being so humble.”
He is also a businessman. https://t.co/ufD6JenttG
— Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) March 19, 2026
Following this, Stewart made an open invitation for Musk to appear on his show. Stewart signed off saying, “Come on the show! We’ll talk about how self-deprecating we both are!”
Last year, Musk openly said he would go on The Daily Show for an interview with Jon Stewart. However, he stressed he would only do so, “if it airs unedited.” But that never happened. Stewart later said that Musk had “ghosted” him after he read the direct message he sent following up on the offer.
“Judging from his most recent revelations of his baby mamas, I think everyone has been left unread at some point by that gentleman,” Stewart later joked on his podcast. As of last April, the billionaire had at least 14 children with four women.
The biggest criticism of X since Musk overhauled the platform is that it is soft on its treatment of false information, or “fake news.” As noted by the Daily Beast, back in 2024, misinformation experts said his platform enabled the spread of false claims.
In fact, they accused Musk himself of pushing false and misleading statements about that year’s Presidential election. According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, those claims ultimately ramped up 2 billion views.
