A vandal targeted a Texas mural depicting X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk by scrawling the words "deny, defend, depose" across his face.
The mural is located in Brownsville, which is 24 miles west of Musk's SpaceX launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The words scribbled on the mural — "deny, defend, depose" — are the same ones that were carved into the casings of the bullets Luigi Mangione allegedly used to murder UnitedHealth Care CEO Brian Thompson. Those words echo a phrase — “delay, deny, defend” — used by lawyers and critics to describe how insurance companies try to avoid claims.
The Brownsville Police Department told Valley Central, a local news site, that it has had no reports about the vandalism and has not made any arrests.
On Wednesday, the mural's original artist, Alexandro Gonzalez-Hernandez — who goes by the name @popc_ulture on social media — painted over the additions and added a name tag saying "Hello, my name is Luigi M" to Musk's image.
The artist claimed on social media that Musk personally requested that he add the "Luigi" name tag after the vandalism.
"Elon Musk called me (wonderful people) he told me to add 'Hello, my name is Luigi M.’ He loved the mural," Gonzalez-Hernandez wrote alongside an Instagram post about the incident.
Musk has not commented publicly about the mural — though the billionaire often weighs in on matters large and small on X, the social media platform he owns. A Chron reported asked Gonzalez-Hernandez if it was possible that he'd been duped by pranksters using an AI to impersonate Musk's voice.
"The lines between AI and reality are blurring—maybe it was Elon, maybe it was AI, or maybe it was something even bigger. The world is full of surprises!" the artist told Chron.
One of those surprises adorned the side of a Tesla factory in Berlin last month after a U.K. group projected an image of Musk doing a "Nazi salute" next to the word "HEIL."
Nazi imagery is illegal in Germany, and the projection — while aimed at criticizing Musk — has resulted in a criminal investigation, according to German public broadcaster DW.
Musk was accused of giving a “Nazi salute” during Donald Trump’s inauguration. MAGA supporters, the ADL, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu all insisted Musk just made an “awkward gesture” and not a sieg heil salute. Musk himself wrote off the comparisons to “dirty tricks” by the press, and then made Nazi puns.
Since the inauguration, the world’s richest man has had near unfettered access to some of the most sensitive data and systems in the federal government, all justified by his position as the head of the “Department of Government Efficiency.”
Musk claims his team needs the access for the purpose of finding government waste. He — and the rest of the Trump administration — have also been pushing for federal workers to quit their jobs to allow for a government overhaul.
The all-out assault on the federal government and the fact that the world’s richest man has such a clear and direct influence on the president of one of the most powerful nations on Earth has tanked Musk’s favorability ratings.
According to a January 29 poll from Quinnipiac University, 53 percent of respondents said they don’t approve of Musk’s involvement with the government.
Musk now boasts a favorability rating of -11 points, which is huge drop from the +29 points he held in 2016, according to CNN’s data reporter, Harry Enten.
