Fact Check: Don't fall for image of shirtless Musk with large gut holding leash at beach
Claim:
An image authentically shows tech billionaire Elon Musk shirtless at a beach, displaying a very large gut and holding a leash.
Rating:
A rumor that users circulated online in March 2025 claimed an image showed tech billionaire Elon Musk walking shirtless at a beach while displaying a very large gut. The picture appeared to show Musk, an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, holding a leash.
For example, on March 27, an X user posted (archived) the image with the Portuguese-language caption (translated to English), "This is the guy who believes in the superiority of the Aryan race." The post received more than 1.8 million views.
A reverse-image search also located other posts from as far back as April 2024, when users shared the picture on Bluesky, Reddit, Threads and X.
However, the image of Musk shirtless near a beach displaying a very large gut was fake. Someone altered an existing picture with image-editing software or prompted an artificial-intelligence tool to entirely create the image, or used both.
One of the earliest postings of the image located by the reverse-image search existed on X user @theliamnissan's account from April 24, 2024. The user's post (archived) received more than 4.2 million views. In a direct message, the user told Snopes they did not create the picture, nor did they remember who did.
Know Your Meme, a website chronicling the history of various online memes, titled the image as "Elon Musk Shirtless Harkonnen Photo." The title referenced either the House Harkonnen people or Baron Vladimir Harkonnen from the "Dune" novel and film series. The article also mentioned genuine pictures of Musk appearing shirtless from time spent on a yacht in Mykonos, Greece, in 2022.
For further reading, other fact checks examined similar photos, including a picture of Musk showing a larger-than-normal gut while visiting a SpaceX facility, as well as a purported image of him wearing a black mesh crop top.
"Baron Vladimir Harkonnen." Fandom.com, Villains Wiki, https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Baron_Vladimir_Harkonnen.
Carry, Owen. "Elon Musk Shirtless Harkonnen Photo." Know Your Meme, 26 Apr. 2024, https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/elon-musk-shirtless-harkonnen-photo.
---. "Elon Musk Shirtless in Mykonos." Know Your Meme, 18 July 2022, https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/elon-musk-shirtless-in-mykonos.
Liles, Jordan. "Photo of Elon Musk Altered to Increase His Chest and Stomach Size." Snopes, 11 Nov. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/elon-musk-photo-chest-stomach/.
---. "Photo Shows Elon Musk Wearing Mesh Crop Top?" Snopes, 3 Dec. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/musk-crop-top/.
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