The backlash escalated Thursday, when Vivek Ramaswamy, in a post on X, criticized an American culture that he said “venerated mediocrity over excellence.”

For Christmas, maybe you unwrapped gifts, baked cookies or hung out with family. Elon Musk spent his holiday week as he usually does: posting again and again on X. But this time it was burning some of the goodwill he’d won with America’s anti-immigrant right.