Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calls Elon Musk A ‘Billionaire With An Ego Problem’ After Twitter Account Goes Blank

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) has found herself in yet another internet feud on platform X, formerly known as Twitter, with Elon Musk, the owner.

The two have a history of engaging with each other on social media, often getting into disputes. This latest one has left AOC feeling unsafe and violated. 

A couple of days ago, AOC compared the current and past number of immigrants coming to New York, stating that the current wave is “nothing” compared to ones that came before.

Conservative journalist Ashley St.Clair responded to AOC’s thoughts: “Girl math is saying immigrants coming legally through Ellis Island is the same as 3 million undocumented migrants pouring through our border and costing NYC $1,000,000,000 to house migrants for free in hotels.” 

Musk later tweeted in agreement with St.Clair, claiming that AOC is “not that smart.”

AOC and Musk kept going back and forth, with AOC even bringing up a list of her most impressive achievements, including her investigation of Donald Trump, authoring a FEMA funeral assistance program and leading the U.S. Climate Corps, which has created “tens of thousands of new jobs.”

Musk later “took it back” his criticism, saying that AOC was “obviously a genius.” He immediately followed up, tweeting, “However, have you considered, rather than ‘funeral assistance,’ that FEMA focus its funding on preventing funerals in the first place?”

The situation continued like this until later in September. When AOC returned from a community event in Bronx, New York, she got a message from her team asking her if she required any assistance with the “Elon Musk situation.”

Confused, the congresswoman opened the Twitter app but found a blank screen. Nothing showed up when she clicked on her mentions. Although she did not know for sure, she shared her suspicion that it was because she had hurt Musk’s ego and got “under his skin.” 

The whole situation only highlighted how unsafe she felt online and in the real world. 

She tweeted that she was “tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform.”

It wasn’t too long ago that AOC had to deal with a very similar situation. In May,  AOC said she strongly considered leaving the platform after Musk promoted a “sick” account impersonating her. Musk failed to protect AOC as a platform X user and gave the parody account visibility by directly interacting with it for the sake of a joke.