Sesame Workshop is upping security measures around its social media accounts following Sunday’s hack of “Sesame Street” star Elmo’s X profile. The incident saw the beloved puppet sharing antisemitic messages and accusing President Donald Trump of being on the Epstein List.
The company behind “Sesame Street” addressed the recent hack in a post on Elmo’s X account on Tuesday, saying that the security around the iconic kids’ entertainment character’s X has been updated to protect against “the abhorrent antisemitic and racist content” seen in Sunday’s posts.
“On Sunday, Elmo’s X account was briefly hacked by an outside party, in spite of the security measures in place. We strongly condemn the abhorrent antisemitic and racist content, and the account has since been secured,” the post read. “These posts in no way reflect the values of Sesame Workshop or Sesame Street, and no one at the organization was involved.”
On Sunday, Elmo’s X account was briefly hacked by an outside party, in spite of the security measures in place.
— Elmo (@elmo) July 15, 2025
We strongly condemn the abhorrent antisemitic and racist content, and the account has since been secured.
These posts in no way reflect the values of Sesame Workshop… pic.twitter.com/MaTqsjQ81V
On Sunday morning, Elmo’s X account began posting links to cryptocurrency scams, before things escalated. There appeared to be six rogue posts in total, largely targeting Jews and Donald Trump. Multiple posts called for violence against Jewish people, and also referred to the reported client list of convicted sex offender Epstein.
One post referred to Trump as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “puppet” because Trump “is in the Epstein files,” while another called him a “child f–ker” and demanded the release of Epstein’s client list.
Earlier Tuesday, Elmo’s X account thanked his fans for being kind: “Thank you for being kind to Elmo and all the people in your neighborhood,” the post, which marked the accounts first since Saturday, read. “Elmo loves you.”
Thank you for being kind to Elmo and all the people in your neighborhood. Elmo loves you.❤️
— Elmo (@elmo) July 15, 2025
The Sunday hack has provided plenty of fodder online, with many running to Elmo’s defense — and others finding entertainment in the sheer absurdity of the incident. “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, for instance, held a satirical interview with the “Sesame Street” character on Monday that saw Elmo admitting that his account wasn’t actually hacked — he had instead been radicalized.
When pressed by Stewart to take accountability for his actions, Elmo admitted, “Elmo wasn’t hacked. It was Elmo … But Elmo was radicalized by the manosphere. Elmo is part of the male loneliness epidemic.” The puppet, who was not-so-slyly voiced and controlled by Stewart himself throughout the segment, continued, “You see, what happened was, Elmo was doing his own research on flu shots. Six hours later, because of the algorithm, Elmo was moderating the QAnon Discord chat and building homemade bombs.”
Stewart told Elmo not to blame the algorithm, which prompted the puppet to shout, “Are you canceling Elmo? Once again, the so-called tolerant left policing speech that’s inconvenient to their woke dogma. Who’s the real puppet now, Jon?”
You can watch the full “Daily Show” segment yourself in the video below.
