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Elon Musk took the stage at the DealBook conference on Wednesday evening<\/a> with nervous laughter and a cascade of jokes about himself and his companies. But the interview quickly turned to the more serious subject of Musk\u2019s recent antisemitic posts on X and whether his company can survive the advertiser boycott. On that matter, Musk seemed alternatingly apologetic and defiant \u2014 acknowledging his mistakes, then doing everything in his power to push advertisers away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI hope they stop. Don\u2019t advertise,\u201d Musk told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin. \u201cIf somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.\u201d He singled out Disney CEO Bob Iger, who discussed not wanting Disney to be affiliated with Musk while on stage earlier in the day. \u201cHey Bob, if you\u2019re in the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If advertisers don\u2019t return, Musk said, \u201cwhat this advertising boycott is gonna do is it\u2019s gonna kill the company.\u201d He seemed almost resigned to the possibility, speaking of it almost as though X were a martyr and advertisers the enemy. \u201cThat is what everybody on Earth will know,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be gone, and it\u2019ll be gone because of an advertiser boycott.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Musk\u2019s message to advertisers came after what had briefly appeared to be an attempt to salvage the damage he caused after he called an antisemitic post the \u201cactual truth\u201d two weeks ago. More than 100 brands have since halted their ads, and the company is at risk of losing $75 million by the end of the year, according to The New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI should in retrospect should not have replied to that one person,\u201d Musk said. He blamed media outlets for not covering his clarifications before apologizing. \u201cEssentially I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me, and arguably to those are antisemitic, and for that I\u2019m quite sorry. That was not my intention.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But even in his attempts to explain himself \u2014 that out of tens of thousands of posts on X, he\u2019s bound to say \u201cfoolish\u201d things \u2014 Musk insisted he wasn\u2019t on an \u201capology tour.\u201d He said his recent visit to Israel wasn\u2019t in response to the criticism of his posts, and that he didn\u2019t mind being an object of contempt. He then went on a rambling explanation of what he says he really meant: his belief that Jewish people are funding causes meant to \u201cannihilate\u201d them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His attempted clarification only seemed to further the antisemitic conspiracy theory he promoted in the first place, broadly blaming \u201cpeople in the Jewish community\u201d for their support of unnamed activist groups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The full interview was meandering and at times devolved into stream of consciousness responses; Musk spoke for triple the time most other interviewees did. But the questions around Musk\u2019s own actions, and the resulting advertiser exodus \u2014 the things that could materially impact X \u2014 seemed to garner the most nonchalant answers. He doesn\u2019t seem to care.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n