Elon Musk vowed to “come after” far-left activists like a former volunteer videographer for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, who once called the billionaire tech titan a “valid military target.”
“If they come after me, I will come after them and finish the job,” Musk wrote Monday on X in response to a post highlighting an investigation by The Free Press into pro-Mamdani Eric Hovagim.
Hovagim, 28, is an independent videographer and political content creator who said he volunteered to help film and edit three videos for Mamdani’s Democratic mayoral primary campaign last year.
The Arizona native was recently the subject of a profile by The Free Press which noted his outrageous comments like threatening Musk and alleging that the US and Israel are run by “Zionist pedophiles.” He reportedly dismissed allegations of China’s repression of Uyghurs as CIA propaganda and likened America to the “Fourth Reich.”
Musk was responding to an X post from investor Joe Lonsdale, who shared The Free Press story with his more than 1 million followers, writing: “This is not a surprise. Sadly, many on the far left are this radical.”
“But how do we get this reality to pierce the insulated media bubbles of the naive left?” Lonsdale wrote.
In March, Hovagim took to X and responded to a video showing what appeared to be Iraqi locals recovering a downed US drone, which is alleged to have bore the markings of Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service.
That video prompted Hovagim to remark that Musk was a “valid military target.” The Post has sought comment from Hovagim.
Hovagim told the Daily Caller News Foundation in November that he volunteered to “film and/or edit” three vids promoting Mamdani’s affordability agenda before the June 2025 Democratic primary and insisted he “never received any payment from the campaign, any PAC or anyone associated with Zohran.”
He also said his only dealings were with the campaign’s video team and that the work was completed before the primary.
Neither The Free Press nor the Daily Caller identified the three campaign videos, and Mamdani’s campaign did not publicly dispute Hovagim’s account.
A July profile by “The Honest Drink” podcast described Hovagim as an industrial engineer turned political commentator who moved to Shanghai in late 2025 after becoming disillusioned with the US.
Born and raised in Arizona, Hovagim attended Brophy College Preparatory before studying industrial engineering and operations research at the University of California, Berkeley.
While at Berkeley, he co-founded an online sports betting startup called Better, later known as Pogbet, according to his LinkedIn account.
In recent years, however, Hovagim has become better known for producing political videos than for his startup career.
His YouTube channel mixes campaign analysis, geopolitical commentary and travel documentaries focused on China, Cuba, Israel and US foreign policy.
According to The Free Press, Hovagim has publicly defended the Chinese Communist Party’s policies in Xinjiang, where the United Nations has concluded that serious human rights violations there may constitute crimes against humanity.
After Mamdani’s primary victory, Hovagim published videos praising the campaign’s social media strategy, including one titled “Behind the Scenes of Zohran Mamdani’s Historic Victory” and another arguing that Mamdani’s online videos transformed political campaigning.
Beyond his connection to Mamdani, Hovagim has developed ties to left-wing political streamer Hasan Piker, who once stated that the US “deserved” the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Hovagim was credited as a producer on Hasan Piker’s recent controversial documentary on Cuba.
The Post has sought comment from Hovagim, Mamdani and Piker.
