In Leaked Audio, JD Vance Allegedly Says Elon Musk Is "Cosplaying as a Great American Leader" — Is It Real?

In an interview with NBC News on March 14, 2025, Vice President JD Vance spoke about Elon Musk's work as head of DOGE. In reference to a previous statement Elon said about making mistakes while tearing through the federal government, Vance said, "I’m accepting of mistakes." He continued, "I also think you have to quickly correct those mistakes."

The vice president also said something that seemed out of step with his boss, President Trump. Vance said he was aware there there are a lot of good people who work in the government, and those people are doing good work. He said it's his hope that they preserve "as much of what works in government as possible while eliminating what doesn’t work." Two weeks later, alleged leaked audio of Vance tearing into Elon tells a different story. Is it real? Here's what we know.

While we cannot confirm that this audio is real, it certainly sounds like Vice President Vance is airing some heavy grievances about the SpaceX founder's methods. It's unclear who Vance is speaking to, but in audio uploaded by @michelle_courmier on TikTok, the vice president says, "Everything that he's doing is getting criticized in the media." Regardless of whether or not Vance is actually speaking, that part is true.

The audio goes on to say that Elon claims to be helping the United States, but he's not: "He's making us look bad." It seems that the real problem for the alleged Vance is Elon making him look bad. In a slightly lowered voice, the voice says Elon wouldn't like it if he said this, but, "He's cosplaying as this great American leader in a room that has the portraits of some of the greatest men that ever led this country."

Things take quite a turn as the whispers escalate to heated declarations. Echoing what many people have said, the voice points out that Elon is not an elected official. Once again, that's not the real issue for the alleged vice president who says, "I am an elected official. I am the important one in this situation, not him." The big closer is the voice dipping his toes into schadenfreude: "If he wants to tank the economy and his cars, maybe that's what he deserves." Whoa, shots fired!

There are a ton of people in the comments saying this is AI, which would obviously be disappointing. Thankfully not everyone is addressing that possibility. "This is so VEEP-coded to me," wrote one person. This is absolutely something that would happen to Selina Meyer, all while Gary is standing behind her holding her bag.

An incredible comparison to Mean Girls was made by one commentator who wrote, "The way he said, 'He's not even American,' gives the same vibes as 'He doesn't even go here.'" On Wednesdays, we wear ill-fitting slacks. Unfortunately, no one can beat the comment from Lisa Rinna who knows all about petty feuds. "Oof, the Housewives are Housewiving," she wrote. If it is actually Vance in the audio, the girlies are indeed fighting.