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Elon Musk’s gaming livestream abruptly ended after he was mercilessly trolled by other players in the comments.
Musk went live as part of an “airborne continuity test” for his Starlink satellite system as he recorded himself playing Path of Exile 2 on his private jet.
The world’s richest man and “first buddy” to President Donald Trump, often brags about his gaming prowess. But he faced a slew of taunts after he was defeated by the video game’s first boss known as the “Bloated Miller.”
Musk remained stony-faced and largely speechless for about 90 minutes as he received a tirade of death threats, jabs at his appearance and slights over his government-slashing agenda through the Department of Government Efficiency before he finally claimed he “lost connection.”
“You have no real friends and will die alone,” wrote one gamer.
“You ruined the country just like you ruined all your marriages,” added another gamer added.

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Musk broke his silence when a gamer said he was “dumb and ugly” and said his electric vehicle company Tesla was “falling apart.”
“There are a lot of r*****s in this chat,” he said.
At one point, Musk listened to So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth, the 2020 hit by Grimes, his ex-partner and mother of three of his 14 children.
“Elon, it’s me,” one person wrote as the song faded out. “Ashley St. Claire [sic]” they added, claiming they were the influencer who in February said she had given birth to his youngest child.
“I have no other means of contacting you so I bought PoE2 early access just for this. Please pay your child support. Thank you Elon,” they added.
Another repeatedly posted: “I am your lost son, look at me, father Elon.”
After a final tirade of “die, die, die,” Musk said: “Oh, we lost connection.” His character was killed in the game and the stream was ended. The stream was later deleted from his X account before being uploaded to YouTube.

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In the non-gaming world, Musk is embroiled in a feud with another of Trump’s advisers and close confidants, Peter Navarro.
The pair have exchanged blows over Trump’s tariff policies that have roiled stock markets and disturbed investors after his “Liberation Day” announcement.
On Monday, Navarro sought to dismiss Musk’s opposition to heavy tariffs on Chinese goods by describing Tesla as a “car assembler” reliant on foreign parts rather than a manufacturer even though Tesla vehicles use significant portions of American-made parts.
Responding on X, Musk said: “Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false.”
He later added that Tesla “has the most American-made cars” of any automaker and described Navarro as “dumber than a sack of bricks.”
When asked about the spat, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed their insults, and stated: “Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue.”