During a formal banquet in Beijing tied to President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Tesla CEO became the internet’s main character after a series of awkward, exaggerated expressions turned a tightly choreographed diplomatic moment into viral content.
Meme Mode, Activated
Footage from the Great Hall of the People shows Musk refusing to stand for a selfie with Apple CEO Tim Cook, instead contorting his face and raising an eyebrow as others posed around him. As more attendees approached, Musk kept up the odd expressions.
The clips spread quickly, pulling focus away from the summit’s actual agenda — trade, technology, and economic cooperation — and into something far more shareable.
The ‘Meme Gap’ in Action
“What happened in Beijing last night is a textbook example of the meme gap — the chasm between what a high-stakes diplomatic event is designed to communicate and what the internet actually takes away from it,” said Amy Prenner
“Musk sat alone while executives lined up to take selfies beside him, grimaced through the moment, then pretended to be busy on his phone — and separately, spun in circles filming the venue like a tourist while the world’s most consequential trade summit played out around him,” she noted.
“Those two clips will outlive every policy headline from this trip by years,” she added. “That’s not an opinion, that’s just how attention works.”
When the Clip Becomes the Story
Musk has built a reputation for unpredictable public behavior, and the banquet appearance fits a pattern of moments that blur the line between executive and internet personality.
“The smartest move when a meme overtakes the news cycle is to own it immediately, on your own platform, and redirect the narrative before anyone else sets the frame. Musk has done this before and has enough brand equity to survive it,” Prenner said.
“The worst move — and the most common — is silence followed by an earnest statement, which transforms a viral moment into an actual story,” she added.
Serious Business, Background Noise
The banquet itself was part of a broader diplomatic effort. Trump described the visit as a “great honor” and said he and Xi had “extremely positive and productive conversations.”
But those comments struggled to compete with Musk’s expressions.
“The Beijing summit covered trade, tech policy, and economic cooperation at the highest level — serious business by any measure — and yet the spinning was all anyone wanted to talk about,” Prenner said. “For Musk specifically, that’s a manageable problem. For any other executive in that room without his cult of personality, it would be a full crisis.”
