Elon Musk mulls building an Iron Man ‘flying metal suit of armor’ after Trump assassination attempt

The Tesla CEO said that two people had already attempted to assassinate him in the past eight months.

Elon Musk is looking to fortify his security following an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally Saturday.

A few hours after the shooting, a tech and cybersecurity blog, Whole Mars Catalog, tweeted at Musk to “beef up” his security.

“Maybe it’s time to build that flying metal suit of armor [sic],” Musk replied.

Prolific X-poster and Musk fan Ian Miles Cheong also pleaded with Musk to “triple” his security, writing that “if they can come for Trump they will also come for you.”

The Tesla CEO replied that two people had already attempted to assassinate him in the past eight months and that in both instances, they were arrested with guns.

“Dangerous times ahead,” Musk said.

Musk has previously entertained the concept of an Iron Man-esque supersuit. In 2021, he met with engineer and inventor Dylan Lange Edminston, who created a prototype of a flying suit made of iron, to discuss the invention.

It is unclear if Musk took the idea any further. Edminston and Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

A writer for Marvel Studios’ 2008 film Iron Man, Mark Fergus, also previously named Musk as an inspiration for the titular character in the series. Musk had a cameo in the second installment of the series in 2010.

Support for Trump

Since fully endorsing Trump mere minutes after the shooting, Musk has engaged almost non-stop in his support for the former president. Shortly after the shooting, he compared the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to former President Theodore Roosevelt.

On Saturday evening, the X CEO called for the head of the Secret Service, charged with protecting Trump, to resign, wondering if the agency’s “incompetence” was “deliberate.” He posted similar speculations throughout the night, at one point saying he couldn’t sleep.

As of Monday afternoon, Musk was still posting about the shooting. He has taken to calling the head of Secret Service “Director Cheetos” for her past work as the head of global security at PepsiCo. He said it was “super weird” that the public still didn’t have access to any posts from the 20-year-old shooter.

Musk also appears to be affronted by the mainstream media’s coverage of the event, calling for the Wall Street Journal to “clear house” over an article reporting on division following the shooting.

On Friday, sources told Bloomberg that Musk donated to America PAC, a super political action committee working to elect Trump, though it was unclear how much he gave. The filings should come out Monday evening.