In January, with a nationwide ban on TikTok looming, a whole lot of 1000’s of individuals within the US started flocking to a different Chinese language social media app referred to as RedNote—solely to seek out that Maye Musk, Elon Musk’s mom, had already established a comparatively giant viewers on the platform. Maye, who has turn into a celeb in her personal proper in China over the previous few years, had over 600,000 followers on RedNote when the flood of Individuals arrived.
“I want to seek out the block button,” one American consumer commented beneath Maye’s newest video on the time, which has acquired over 10,000 likes. “I can’t consider I’m witnessing American folks confronting Musk’s mother to her face,” one other remark in Chinese language reads. Shortly afterward, Maye’s remark part on RedNote was closed for a number of weeks. New feedback didn’t begin displaying up once more till early February.
The incident represented a uncommon second when the parallel public photos Maye Musk has created for herself collided. In China, the 76 year-old has constructed a largely apolitical status as a “silver influencer,” trend mannequin for native manufacturers, and e-book creator who frequently garners optimistic protection in Chinese language state media, The New York Instances beforehand reported. Final week, she made one other journey to China, this time to the town of Wuxi, the place she was invited to look at a drone present, promoted conventional crafts, and posed with a particular Tesla mannequin that is available in totally different colorways bought solely in Asia.
However within the US, Maye’s profession has more and more converged with Elon’s as her son gained unprecedented energy and affect over the US federal authorities. Since President Trump gained reelection, Maye has traveled on Air Pressure One, sat subsequent to Melania Trump at a Mar-a-Lago banquet, and attended a luncheon with Ivanka Trump, whereas additionally frequently firing off posts on X about US politics, in line with a WIRED evaluate of her social media presence.
In some ways, Maye seems to be attempting to straddle the advantageous line between her political engagement within the US and her enterprise dealings in China and different overseas nations. That endeavor has turn into extra fraught during the last two months as Trump started radically reshaping US overseas coverage, together with imposing new tariffs on China. “There’s a heightened threat now for American enterprise folks touring to China and that continues to extend, particularly as tensions within the commerce conflict will improve,” says Holden Triplett, co-founder of Trenchcoat Advisors and a former senior FBI official posted in Beijing.
Maye Musk’s enterprise supervisor and Inventive Artists Company, her expertise consultant company in China, didn’t reply to requests for remark from WIRED.
Even earlier than she started touring frequently to China, Maye publicly supported Elon and Tesla’s enterprise endeavors within the nation. In 2015, she retweeted a publish by Elon by which he talked about assembly with Chinese language chief Xi Jinping. “Nice journey to China seeing President Xi … Pic w China staff in state backyard,” the tweet reads, which was later deleted from Elon’s profile.