Elon Musk pulled a prank worthy of Bart Simpson on the national media.
The mogul and President Trump’s “best buddy” temporarily changed his handle on X to “Harry Bōlz” — and got a good laugh when CNN anchor Dana Bash and other talking heads were forced to utter the cheeky moniker on live TV.
“Made them say my name,” Musk wrote on X, followed by several laughing emojis, along with a clip of Bash reporting on his post.
The clip showed Bash reluctantly telling CNN viewers Tuesday: “Disruptor-in-chief Elon Musk, who apparently has adopted the alias — at least he changed his social media handle to Harry Bōlz — tweeted this morning, ‘Democracy in America is being destroyed by judicial coup. An activist judge is not a real judge.’”
The X owner’s post was in response to the halting of executive orders signed by Trump, which included a slew of legal challenges that were followed by judicial rulings to try to slow Musk’s cost-cutting efforts as head of the the Department of Government Efficiency, dubbed “DOGE.”
Musk’s sophomoric humor was reminiscent of the phone calls made by Bart Simpson to Moe’s Tavern asking him to call out for barflies with names like I.P. Freely and Hugh Jass.
The Tesla boss appeared with Trump at the White House on Tuesday afternoon to give a press conference to defend DOGE’s cost-cutting mission, which has included mass firings of government workers in recent weeks.
Musk has since reverted to his normal handle on X, but his joke on Bash and the media drew praise from many of his more than 200 million followers.
“She actually said it. You can see the defeated look on her face LOL,” one fan wrote.
“You broke the fake news again,” another user said.
“This is amazing. The media is completely broken over it,” added another.
“Winning at every level!,” someone else wrote, while another fan said the name change “could be the most rewarding accomplishment of D.O.G.E.”
Musk’s brief name change also ignited an uptick in trading in the cryptocurrency world, as two Solana meme coins with the same name — Harry Bōlz — dramatically rose.
One trader reportedly turned a $156 investment into $52,000, according to Decrypt.
Musk had previously used the Harry Bōlz moniker in April 2023.
“‘Tbh, I’m just hoping a media org that takes itself way too seriously writes a story about Harry Bōlz …,” he wrote on X at the time.
