How a mean, disrespectful tweet about Rachel Levine shaped the X platform Elon Musk bought and broke

Before Twitter became X, before Elon Musk stripped away protections for transgender users and before the platform earned the lowest LGBTQ+ safety score among major social networks, there was Adm. Rachel Levine, the trailblazing doctor and public health official from the Biden administration.Or, more precisely, there was a deliberate act of humiliation aimed at her.Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon now places Twitter’s response to his conservative satire outlet’s 2022 post misgendering Levine near the center of the origin story behind Musk’s $44 billion takeover.Speaking at the 2026 Alliance Defending Freedom Summit earlier this month, Dillon said Musk contacted the Babylon Bee after Twitter locked its account over a post naming Levine, a transgender woman, its “Man of the Year.” Musk then called Babylon Bee editor-in-chief Kyle Mann, Dillon said.“Maybe I just need to buy Twitter,” Musk said, according to Dillon. “We thought he was totally kidding,” Dillon told the audience in a video on the ADF’s YouTube page. Eight months later, he noted, Musk walked into Twitter’s headquarters as its owner.The Advocate asked Musk and X whether Dillon’s description of the call was accurate and whether the post targeting Levine influenced Musk’s decision to purchase Twitter, but did not hear back.Related: Elon Musk Dials Up Transphobia on Twitter, Says 'Cis' Is a SlurMusk was already buying Twitter stockMusk had already begun quietly buying Twitter shares before the Bee targeted Levine. Musk’s own securities filing shows that he began buying Twitter shares on January 31, 2022. The SEC later alleged that his holdings crossed the 5 percent ownership threshold on March 14 of that year before the Babylon Bee published its post targeting Levine.The episode, therefore, did not create Musk’s initial interest in Twitter. But it appears to have become part of the ideological case for taking control of it.The dispute began after USA Today selected Levine, then Presiden