Overview
- Video shows President Trump referring to Elon Musk as "Leon" while praising Starlink at Joint Base Andrews and then immediately correcting himself.
- The clip spread rapidly on social media and was verified by multiple outlets, drawing millions of views within hours.
- Online reaction split between viewers who treated the slip as a minor verbal mistake and critics who cited it as fresh evidence of worrying lapses in the president's public behavior.
- Elon Musk, SpaceX, Tesla and the White House had not issued public responses to the mistake at the time of reporting.
- The gaffe revived attention to the pair's turbulent relationship, which has swung from public clashes over DOGE to a recent rapprochement when Musk joined the president's May delegation to China, and it could keep scrutiny on Trump’s public appearances in the run-up to coming political events.