Elon Musk responds to NASA head Sean Duffy with homophobic GIF amid space-age feud

A dispute over space contracts devolved quickly into SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attacking Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy with a homophobic slur earlier this week.

On Monday, Duffy opened contracts up for NASA’s Artemis III moon mission project, despite an earlier agreement with SpaceX. As part of announcing the move, the current space agency leader posted an interview he gave to CNBC on X with a lengthy caption.

“We are in a race against China so we need the best companies to operate at a speed that gets us to the Moon FIRST,” Duffy wrote. “SpaceX has the contract to build the HLS which will get U.S. astronauts there on Artemis III. But, competition and innovation are the keys to our dominance in space so [NASA] is opening up HLS production to Blue Origin and other great American companies.”

Musk’s impulse wasn’t to simply defend SpaceX’s record but to resort to anti-gay rhetoric against the Trump administration official.

After taking a swipe at Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin in the comments, Musk posted a GIF reading, “Why are you gae?”

The controversial X CEO and billionaire — who, in recent months, has increasingly championed homophobic and transphobic views — was referring to a notorious 2012 Ugandan news interview during which anchor Simon Kaggwa Njala asked the question of trans activist Pepe Julian Onziema.

As is well known, Duffy is not gay, but he does have an anti-LGBTQ+ record of his own. Before becoming a Fox News host, he openly opposed marriage equality and voted in favor of Trump’s first ban on transgender people serving in the military during his eight years in Congress. More recently, as transportation secretary, he’s spearheaded the Trump administration’s initiative to erase rainbow crosswalks. He even once made headlines for fighting with his lesbian housemate on MTV’s The Real World — back when his greatest accomplishment was being cast in the reality series.

It’s unlikely Musk mistook Duffy for his immediate predecessor, the openly gay Pete Buttigieg who served as President Joe Biden’s transportation secretary but did not lead NASA. More likely, the GIF was a result of a prolonged feud, as Duffy and Musk have reportedly clashed in the past.

The first news of cracks in the billionaire’s relationship — or as some have joked, “bromance” — with President Donald Trump came after a Cabinet meeting, as reported in March by The New York Times, where Duffy accused the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency of pushing to eliminate air traffic control positions amid a spike in plane crashes. Musk called that a “lie” and engaged in a back-and-forth with the Department of Transportation head, according to the publication.