Friday 20 March 2026 11:46 GMT Bookmark Jon Stewart and Elon Musk have had many previous run-ins (YouTube/AP) “But the truth is that the algorithm incentivizes the misinformation from the right, and he designs it.” Musk reacted to a clip of the exchange on X by saying: “Jon Stewart is an extremely skilled propagandist disguised as a truth-teller.” The host responded, “Elon Musk is an extremely skilled propagandist,” pointedly leaving out the latter qualifier. “Not as good as you! Stop being so humble,” the tech boss answered, prompting Stewart to repeat an invitation he extended last year to appear on his show. Musk said in February 2025, while he was leading President Donald Trump’s DOGE operation to cut federal expenditure, that he would appear on the long-running Comedy Central show “if the show airs unedited.” “We’d be delighted!” the show replied on X but the billionaire has yet to make good on the promise and Stewart later complained that Musk had “ghosted him.” The comic said his efforts to make the interview happen were ignored by the SpaceX and Tesla bosses, with messages he sent to them displaying as read without a reply. open image in gallery Jon Stewart reacts to Elon Musk’s “Nazi salute” at an inauguration event for President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025 (Comedy Central/The Daily Show) “Judging from his most recent revelations of his baby mamas, I think everyone has been left on read at some point by that gentleman,” Stewart joked. “I got left on read, man.” He continued: “I did DM him. I texted him and just said like, ‘Hey man, so is there somebody I should, you know, have our guys reach out to, to make this happen?’ And I got ghosted. “They keep talking about cancel culture. The real cancel culture in this country is anybody who might speak out against Donald Trump, who might be on the right, is immediately exiled.” In another exchange about the mooted appearance, Stewart slammed Musk’s suggestion that he could not be “trusted” to conduct a fair interview: “The guy who custom-made his own Dark MAGA hat – that he wears to opine in the Oval Office with the president, who he spent $270 million to elect – thinks I’m just too partisan.” Musk also went after Stewart over an episode in which the host complained about the cost of prescription drugs and, mid-rant, accidentally cut his hand smashing a “World’s Most Dad” coffee mug on his desk before joking with the studio audience: “I’ll be going to the hospital soon.” “I will send him some DOGE merch to comfort him while he recovers from this injury,” Musk tweeted in response to Stewart’s misfortune. The billionaire also replied with a dart-hitting-a-bullseye emoji in response to a commenter who said of the comedian: “There is a metaphor here. Democrats are so lost in anti-Elon anger that they end up hurting themselves.” More about