Elon Musk shed a few extra pounds as 2024 came to an end, but that cinched waist he flaunted may be temporary.
The billionaire tech mogul was in high spirits at Christmas when he shared a photo of himself dressed as jolly ol’ Saint Nick on X. His noticeably thinner appearance was the focus of the image he captioned, “Ozempic Santa.”
Musk subsequently wrote that he was like “Cocaine Bear, but Santa and Ozempic” before ultimately spilling his secret, which was “technically Mounjaro, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it.”
Now the Tesla CEO has let the public in on another go-to in his life, and instead of reaping compliments, the businessman is being taken to task.
A little over a week into the new year, on Jan. 9, Musk playfully snapped a photo of a nightstand revealing he had accumulated a collection of six Diet Coca-Colas.
Also shown on the bedside table was a single glass of what appeared to be water, a decorative vase, a pair of Apple AirPods Max headphones, and on the floor were his signature black pointed-toe boots. Musk wrote, “I have a drinking problem.” Soon after, he followed up with, “Clearly, I need to switch to glass bottle DC.”
His supporters appeared surprised by the admission. One person responded, “No really, you may need is watch your health, you don’t have water there ?” And a second replied, “Good thing you can pop a neuralink chip in your head post-stroke.”
However, the reactions took a pivot when criticism about Musk’s figure became the focus. Weeks earlier, the South African entrepreneur was the butt of jokes as photos of him shirtless or awkwardly posed circulated on the social platform, where critics laughed at his peculiar figure.
His Coca-Cola obsession renewed that discussion as one person snidely remarked, “That explains why you’re built like this.“ Even Musk’s pal, President-elect Donald Trump, was made relevant in the ridicule.
One such example was a tweet that stated, “The president has something to say about this,” and was accompanied by a 2012 Trump retweet. The Republican president proclaimed, “I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has had negative things to say about Diet Coke and weight gain. Days after his initial tweet in 2012, he wrote, “Diet Coke tweet had a monster response–dammit, I wish the stuff worked.”
He also asked, “The more Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, etc you drink, the more weight you gain?” later pointing out that “Diet Coke, etc is inverse to reason. It tricks your body into eating more.”
In response to Elon’s tweet, one concerned observer had a very important question. “I am honestly curious if anyone has figured out yet why it’s always the Diet Coke that is so addictive,” they tweeted. “No other diet soda has addicts like this one. It’s quite astonishing. What do they put in there???”
Another X user brought up a key ingredient in Diet Coke that could be harmful. “I’m no expert but maybe you’d listen to @grok. Drinking that much aspartame going to get you to the opposite of space. Have you tried squeezing lemons in water?” they asked.
But for at least one person, the soda tweet piqued their curiosity about what the SpaceX founder may have in the works. “Geezus, LOL! Is Coca-Cola your next acquisition target?” they asked.
As it turns out, in 2022, Musk tweeted, “Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in.” His presumed wisecrack followed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which he rebranded as X.
