How a mean tweet about Rachel Levine shaped the X platform Elon Musk bought and built

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
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