Elon Musk’s plan to have ‘legions of children’
Elon Musk’s bizarre new plan of what he is going to do in the event of an apocalypse has been revealed.
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Never fear. Come the apocalypse, Elon Musk is here - with a legion of offspring ready to rebuild civilisation in his image.
“Low birthrates will end civilisation,” the world’s richest man posted to his personal social media platform, X, on Tuesday.
The South African-Canadian-American billionaire, however, is digging for victory.
He’s reportedly fathered at least 14 children with four different women. And an investigation by the Wall Street Journal suggests there may be many more
.
MORE: Elon Musk’s bizarre move with ex-partner Grimes exposed
“To reach legion-level before the apocalypse, we will need to use surrogates,” Musk reportedly text-messaged right-wing social media influencer Ashley St Clair.
The 26-year-old is embroiled in a bitter battle with 53-year-old Musk over custody of their newborn son.
She has accused him of attempting to buy her silence with a $US15 million lump sum and $US100,000 a month in child support.
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Musk, who was appointed to the freshly created post of Special Government Employee by US President Donald Trump after donating $US288 million to his election campaign, is putting population on the national agenda.
The White House is reportedly examining ways and means of encouraging young couples to get married and multiply.
This week, The New York Times reported that proposals include a $US5000 “Baby Bonus”, a gold medal for mothers of six children, and government scholarships for young higher education applicants who have children.
Purveyor of Prophecy
Forget global warming. Forget nuclear war. Forget soaring poverty.
Musk is convinced the single greatest threat to humanity is a lack of children.
“Please look at the numbers — if people don’t have more children, civilisation is going to crumble, mark my words,” Musk told a gathering of CEOs in 2021.
“And yet, so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control. It’s completely the opposite.”
He repeated his dire prophecy last year, this time at an investors’ conference in Saudi Arabia.
“If you don’t make new humans, there’s no humanity, and all the policies in the world don’t matter,” he proclaimed.
He’s not exactly right. Nor is he entirely wrong.
The United Nations projects the world’s population will continue growing for the next 50 to 60 years. it is expected to level off after reaching 10.3 billion.
What may be driving Musk’s fears is the uneven distribution of that growth.
US far-right and Christian nationalist movements are pushing the Great Replacement conspiracy theory - that a secret cabal of “elites” is manipulating immigration, economics and fertility to eliminate white Europeans.
This race-based paranoia is widely dismissed.
Instead, analysts point to soaring living costs, shrinking housing, lack of child care, uncertain job security and poor health care driving falling birthrates in the United States.
New figures show US births fell 2 per cent in 2023 compared to 2022.
The previous figures had declined by 1 per cent per year since 2008.
It’s a worse story in Japan, South Korea and China. It’s a similar story in Australia, Canada and the UK.
But countries including Somalia, Chad, Nigher and Afghanistan have no such problems.
We are Legion
“You’ve got to walk the talk,” Musk said in Saudia Arabia last year.
“So I do have a lot of kids, and I encourage others to have lots of kids.”
According to unnamed sources quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Musk considers his profligacy to be “helping seed the earth with more human beings of high intelligence.”
Why he calls his children a “legion” is unknown.
It is a reference to a Roman military unit of 5000 heavily armed and well-trained soldiers.
It is also a biblical reference. Mark 5:9 quotes a demon-possessed man saying: “My name is Legion: for we are many.”
But Musk is well known for his fascination with the authoritarian Caesars (emperors) who overthrew the Senate to lead the Roman Empire to its eventual collapse.
He reportedly named his son with St. Clair “Romulus”.
According to Roman creation mythology, Romulus and his brother Remus were raised by wolves after being abandoned by their parent-gods. Remus was killed in a dispute between the brothers over where the city would be founded.
Now, Musk has founded his own city.
He’s purchased several adjoining mansions and their estates in Austin, Texas. These are just a short walk from his personal mansion which, in turn, is close to the Silicon Hill industrial estate housing facilities for Space X, Tesla and X.
He desires to bring all his children - and their mothers - there to “be a part of one another’s lives”.
Silicon Hill Harem
Musk has some unusual ideas about childbirth. And women.
“In all of history, there has never been a competitive army composed of women,” he reportedly texted St Clair.
“Not even once… “Men are made for war. Real men, anyway.”
St Clair claims Musk tried to convince her to get a caesarean section (a procedure when a child is cut from the womb to bypass the vagina, which is often associated with the Roman tyrant Julius Caesar).
Musk argued vaginal birth limited the child’s brain size. It’s an argument he’s made before.
But there is no medical evidence supporting this idea.
St Clair also says Musk told her she should have as many as 10 of his children. And that she should embrace the role of mother and move into his Austin estate.
Shivon Zilis - an executive at one of Musk’s companies, Neuralink, is already in the 1.3 square kilometre compound. She has given Musk three children.
Canadian author Justine Wilson is said to be moving in soon. She was Musk’s first wife.
Their first child, Nevada, died of sudden infant death syndrome. But they went on to have five more children through in vitro fertilisation.
Musician Claire “Grimes” Boucher has borne the billionaire one child and provided the eggs for two surrogate births. These are subject to a custody battle.
Right-wing influencer St Clair says she declined the prospect of communal living, sparking the custody battle over Romulus.
And these are just the mothers we know of.
Musk has reportedly been messaging women, offering them the chance to have his children.
Pro-Trump cryptocurrency campaigner Tiffany Fong told the WSJ she had never met Musk when he made the surprise proposition via social media.
She says she mysteriously lost her following on his X platform after turning him down.
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social
Originally published as Elon Musk’s plan to have ‘legions of children’