Elon Musk has unexpectedly gone viral during his recent visit to China. The Tesla CEO’s unusual expression during a lavish banquet at the Great Hall of the People, alongside Donald Trump, in Beijing, has become a talking point after he dropped a video on his X handle. It shows the 54-year-old making hilariously awkward and dramatic facial expressions.
Elon Musk’s exaggerated facial expressions dominated his trip to China with Trump
The moment caught attention during the formal state dinner hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 14, where US President Donald Trump invited top business and technology industry leaders to join him for a two-day state visit. The footage shows the SpaceX founder rolling his eyes and taking a selfie with several delegates, including the CEO of Xiaomi, Lei Jun.
The one-minute video quickly drew attention online, racking up over 82 million views. One of the netizens wrote, “Elon busy being a tourist on a state visit when everyone else is paying attention to the diplomatic protocol.” Another commented, “I love how Elon Musk never changes himself to fit inside a circle!!”
One more individual praised the billionaire by writing, “Can we all just agree that @elonmusk is a gift to our time. Love or hate him, he’s one of a kind and absolutely will go down in history as one of the most humanity moving individuals to ever live. He’s got an energy about him that makes us believe our best days are ahead of us!”
In addition to this video, the hashtag “Lei Jun and Musk photo together” got over 20 million views on Weibo, as per CNBC. Not just that, his moments with Nvidia Jensen Huang, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, also went viral, gaining over 52 million views on Weibo.
Amy Prenner, founder of The Prenner Group, reported by OK! Magazine, said, “What happened in Beijing last night is a textbook example of the meme gap — the chasm between what a high-stakes diplomatic event is designed to communicate and what the internet actually takes away from it.”
Adding, “Musk sat alone while executives lined up to take selfies beside him, grimaced through the moment, then pretended to be busy on his phone — and separately, spun in circles filming the venue like a tourist while the world’s most consequential trade summit played out around him. Those two clips will outlive every policy headline from this trip by years,” she added. “That’s not an opinion, that’s just how attention works.
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