Photo illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty

Elon Musk is a painfully unfunny edgelord who recently became an outspoken Donald Trump supporter. So when Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris shortly after Tuesday night’s debate, the billionaire owner X naturally went looking for the creepiest response possible. He found it, responding to Swift’s self-identification as a “childless cat lady” (a dig at Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance) by offering, or perhaps threatening, to impregnate her.

Understandably, people are focused on the “I will give you a child” part of this post. There’s a lot going on here. Musk is openly sexually harassing Swift on X for expressing a political opinion; he’s previously been accused of sexual misconduct (which he denies). And the comment fits in with a bunch of other strange and disturbing things the billionaire has said. Musk — who has fathered at least 12 children with three women — is obsessed with low birthrates, which has led him to spread the white supremacist conspiracy theory “Great Replacement” (though he says he “doesn’t believe in it”).

What you may be missing is that there’s also a racial slant to Musk’s response to Swift. On first reading, the “guard your cats with my life” part could be interpreted as Musk teasing Swift with some version of “I know you want a strong man to protect you and your beloved cats” in response to Swift’s “childless cat lady” joke and the appearance of one of her cats in her recommendation post.

But Musk actually said, “Taylor, I’m protecting your beloved cats from the migrants who are trying to eat them.” We know Musk believes the unsubstantiated claim that Haitian immigrants are kidnapping and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. On Sunday, he did his part to spread the right’s new favorite conspiracy theory:

And during the debate, he retweeted this post complaining that the moderators had fact-checked Trump because he had shouted, “They’re eating the dogs!”

Musk, on the other hand, seemed to endorse the idea that Swift’s post was just a joke:

I think we all need to tone down the fact that one of the most powerful men in the world says disgusting things about women and minorities!