In The Know

Meghan McCain: ‘Impregnate the planet’ mentality of Musk, Cannon is ‘creepy’

Meghan McCain criticized Tesla CEO Elon Musk and actor Nick Cannon over what she called a “weird” Twitter thread between the two in which they praised having large families.

“Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis,” Musk wrote on Twitter on Thursday after news broke that he had twins last year with Shivon Zilis, an executive at one of his companies. “A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.”

Cannon replied to him, writing, “Right there with you my Brother!”

“Congrats on your family!” Musk wrote in response to Cannon. “We must expand scope & scale of consciousness for civilization to flourish & understand nature of Universe. Consciousness resides most strongly in humans, therefore we need more people!”

Musk and Cannon both have children with multiple partners. Musk has nine children, while Cannon has seven.


In a Saturday op-ed for the Daily Mail, McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), questioned their shared mentality.

“This ‘impregnate the planet’ mentality is creepy and comes off like the actions of a cult leader more than an altruistic person who wants to expand their family and save the plane,” she wrote, calling the exchange “weird.”

McCain also noted the financial implications of having a large family, arguing that most cannot afford to do so.

“The very premise of his argument that we need to have as many children as possible is flawed and unrealistic,” she added.