Tim Walz appears to call Elon Musk a 'gay guy' at Michigan rally

Tim Walz appeared to call Elon Musk a 'gay guy' on the campaign trail - leading to a swift response from the Tesla boss.

The Minnesota Governor made the remark while speaking out against tax cuts for the rich in Michigan - before painting the billionaire as someone who has benefited from them.

'If you're a billionaire, Elon Musk for example,' the aspiring vice president says in viral snippets of the speech, before getting into the apparent gaffe.

'That guy, that gay guy got-'

He proceeds to trail off - before laughing off what Harris's team now says was a slip.

'Michigan knows that word,' the 60-year-old Kamala Harris running went on to say after the fact. 

The crowd goes on to laugh too - as Walz goes on to finish his thought. 

'That dude got a tax cut,' he says - as the clip continues to fain traction on social media.

Among those to take notice was Musk, who took to his own platform X to issue a response.

In it, the supporter of Donald Trump wrote, 'I have no problem being called gay,' while using a well-known acronym to express his frankness.

The response came within minutes and saw the X CEO seemingly brush off any brewing controversy, as the the creator of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin also went on to weigh in.

The man behind one of Musk's favorite digital tokens, Shibetoshi Nakamoto shared a tongue -in-cheek post where Musk had joked how he had been willing to 'sleep with' him - leading , leading to another response from the SpaceX boss.

'I guess Tim Walz read this post', Nakamoto wrote, capping the quip with a laughing emoji. 

Musk, who recently aired an endorsement for Republican candidate Trump, responded by re-sharing Nakamoto's tweet, as others reacted to the circulating footage.

Hashtags like 'gays4trump' were the result - as speculation as to whether Walz actually intended to make such comments began to swirl.

Seeking to clear up any conjecture, the Harris-Walz campaign went on to issue a statement saying that Walz simply 'stuttered' during his spiel, and that what he actually intended to say was 'that guy got', a spokesperson told the New York Post.

He claimed the candidate got tripped up by a stray smear from the crowd, telling the paper, 'In the video, you can hear someone in the crowd yell ‘dips**t! when the governor brings up Musk.

'The governor started laughing and stuttered while trying to say "that guy got" - he did not refer to Elon as a gay guy,' the rep continued.

His later comment to the Detroit crowd, he explained, had been referring to the the insult, the spokesman added - referencing Walz' assertion that those in attendance 'knew that word'.

Meanwhile, Musk has been the victim of barbs from Walz in the past, with the Democratic vice presidential hopeful recently mocking the mogul by using the same word his team now say came from the crowd.

Speaking from the college town of Madison in Wisconsin on October 22, the Minnesota politician accused Musk of dancing like a 'dips***' - during a raucous rally alongside Trump days before.

He recalled how Musk - who endorsed former President Donald Trump immediately after the July 13 assassination attempt - joined the Republican nominee at his second Butler, Pennsylvania, after almost being assassinated there this past summer.

'Elon was on that stage jumping around, skipping like a dips***,' Walz said at the time, while joined by former President Barack Obama. 

'That guy is literally the richest man in the world, spending millions of dollars to help Donald Trump buy an election.'

The election, meanwhile, is now only days away. Multiple states - including Michigan and Pennsylvania - remain up for grabs.