Musk Posts Drug Test Results, NYT Claims He Continues to ‘Lash Out’

The back-and-forth between Elon Musk and the New York Times over the paper’s report about his alleged drug use during President Trump’s 2024 campaign has continued.

Early Tuesday, Musk posted on X, the social network he controls, what looked like the results of a urine drug screen showing that he tested negative for 20 substances, including ketamine — which the Times last month had reported was among the drugs he had used “far more intensely than previously known” in 2024. The image indicated that Musk’s urine sample was collected June 11. He posted the image with the caption: “lol.”

Musk, currently the world’s richest individual, last month had said on X, “I am NOT taking drugs! The New York Times was lying their ass off,” while he acknowledged that he had once taken “prescription ketamine a few years ago.”

In response to Musk’s post with the purported drug-test results, the New York Times PR account on X said, “Elon Musk is continuing to lash out because he doesn’t like our reporting. Nothing that he’s said or presented since our article about his drug use during the presidential campaign was published contradicts what we uncovered. We stand by our journalism.”

To that, Musk answered with the “Why Are You Gae” meme. According to website Gayety, users “often post this meme,” which originated from a 2012 debate on a Ugandan TV show, “alongside a supposedly ‘non-masculine’ activity.” Musk also wrote in reply to the New York Times, “I literally just posted ‘lol’ and the drug test results. How exactly is that ‘lashing out’? 🤣🤣.”

The New York Times article, published May 30, said that “Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it.”