A willingness to admit when one has done something wrong, shameful even, and to make amends, is one of the crown jewels of our ethics. Consequently, we should be supportive when any public figure makes a sincere apology. In the end, these confessions of regret represent the only path leading out of the wilderness of error.
However, a real apology is not what Elon Musk just offered President Trump:
However sincere Musk’s expression of regret might be here—and one can’t doubt that he wishes he had spent less time on X last week—his words make no contact with the ethical terrain he has wandered on.
If you recall, Musk claimed, among other things, that President Trump is implicated in the sex crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. As this was the gravest of all the accusations Musk made, one suspects it is among those he now feels “went too far.”
Therefore, one of two things must be true: