No, Elon Musk didn’t say he was disgusted about ‘everyone’ glorifying the UnitedHealthcare CEO shoot

During the dayslong search for Luigi Mangione, 26, who has been charged with UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s Dec. 4 murder, some social media users praised the shooter while sharing stories of being denied insurance coverage. But despite what some social media posts claim, Tesla CEO Elon Musk did not criticize people who celebrated the shooting.

“It’s disgusting how everyone is turning this guy into some kind of folk hero,” a screenshot shared Dec. 9 on Threads from what appears to be Elon Musk’s X account says, alongside a photo of the suspected shooter. “Insurance companies, like any company, have a duty to shareholders to maximize profits, no matter how ruthlessly. The radical left espousing otherwise needs to grow the hell up.” The screenshot was dated Dec. 7.

Screenshot from Threads

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

But the post isn’t on Musk’s official X account. We searched Google for news reports about Musk criticizing the gunman and found no results.

The fabricated post was shared Dec. 8 on a subreddit, or a forum for a specific topic on Reddit, a website for online discussions, with a disclaimer that said, “All posts in this subreddit should be considered ironic/parodic/satirical unless they are flared as *REAL/*.” The post included a “Fake News” label.

We did find a Dec. 5 post of Musk questioning the U.S. health care system. He asked whether  Americans should be “getting their money’s worth” and shared a 2023 graph showing the United States’ per capita health care administrative costs compared with those of other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 37 democratic governments with market-based economies.

Updated 2024 data from the organization shows the U.S. still spends the highest percentage of its gross domestic product — the total value of all goods and services nations produce — on health care costs.

PolitiFact found False another fabricated X post Dec. 5 that appeared to show Musk praising CEOs after Thompson’s killing.

We rate the claim that Musk criticized the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter on X, saying, “It’s disgusting how everyone is turning this guy into some kind of folk hero,” False.