Tech billionaire Elon Musk insisted Wednesday that his trip to Israel was not an “apology tour” amid the backlash he received for endorsing an antisemitic social media post, for which he expressed regret.

“Well, the trip to Israel is independent of — it wasn’t something like [an] apology tour,” Musk told The New York Times’s Andrew Sorkin at the Dealbook Summit. Musk returned from his trip to Israel earlier this week, where he toured the Kfar Aza kibbutz, which is where Hamas fighters led a deadly Oct. 7 assault on Israeli civilians.

Sorkin pressed Musk on the post that he engaged with on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that sparked a wave of criticism after he appeared to endorse an antisemitic post earlier this month. An X user claimed Jews have been encouraging “dialectical hatred against whites” and referenced the “hordes of minorities that support flooding their country.” Musk then responded to the post, calling it “the actual truth.”

This claim echoes an antisemitic conspiracy theory that accuses Jews of wanting to flood Western countries with nonwhite immigrants. Musk later said that claims he is antisemitic “couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

When discussing the criticism he is facing over the post, Musk said he “has no problem being hated.” He did appear to express regret for the post, saying that “in retrospect,” he would “not have replied to that particular post.”

“And essentially, I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me, and arguably to those who are antisemitic, and for that I am quite sorry,” he said, adding “that was not my intention.”

Days after Musk’s initial post sparked backlash, liberal watchdog Media Matters for America reported that it found ads for companies including Apple, Bravo, Oracle, Xfinity and IBM placed next to posts celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party on X. This prompted a handful of companies, including Disney and Apple, to pull their ads from the platform.

Musk decided to sue Media Matters in response. When asked Wednesday about companies pulling their ad spending from the platform, the X owner accused them of attempting to blackmail him in an expletive response.

“Don’t advertise. If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f— yourself,” he said.

He was responding to Disney CEO Bob Iger’s previous comments during the summit, where he explained why the entertainment giant pulled its ad spending from X.

“Go f— yourself, is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience, that’s how I feel: don’t advertise,” Musk continued.

Elon Musk hurls defiant, profanity-laced retort at fleeing advertisers.

Elon Musk has issued a defiant and profanity-laced message for the advertisers who pulled money from X in recent weeks amid a backlash over his endorsement of an antisemitic tweet and reports of increased hate speech on the platform.

Video of the interview, which was widely circulated, showed that Musk said, “Don’t advertise,” on Wednesday during an on-stage interview at an event in New York. “If someone’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself.”

Musk’s combative remarks came as part of the New York Times’ DealBook Summit. Moments before, the CEO had offered a moment of contrition for his 15 November tweet that endorsed an antisemitic post on X. He said it had been perhaps his worst post in his history of messages that included many “foolish” ones – including a 2018 tweet that cost him $40m in fines from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Musk’s brief apology was followed by his characteristic antagonism. During the interview he bristled at the accusation of antisemitism and said that advertisers who left X, formerly known as Twitter, should not think they could blackmail him. He said “fuck you” numerous times, and at one point added the words “hey, Bob,” an apparent reference to Robert Iger, the chief executive of Walt Disney, which pulled ads on X.

Apple, IBM and Coca-Cola also have removed paid advertisements from X in a continuing trend that could result in up to $75m in revenue losses.

The advertiser exodus began after non-profit Media Matters published a report that showed advertisements from major companies alongside pro-Nazi posts (Musk filed a lawsuit against the organization). It further escalated after Musk publicly agreed with an antisemitic tweet accusing Jewish people of “hatred against whites”.

Musk’s comments to advertisers come even as he acknowledged that their exodus could spell disaster for X, which he purchased for $44bn in 2022.

“What this advertising boycott is going to do is, it is going to kill the company,” he said on Wednesday. “And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company.”

Musk’s antics are the latest in an ongoing series of erratic decisions he has made since taking the helm of Twitter, many of which have concerned advertisers – which long have made up the core of the platform’s business.

In the wake of backlash against his controversial post on X, Musk traveled to Israel and spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. On Wednesday Musk said the trip had been planned before his message and was “independent” of the issue.

During the conversation with Netanyahu, which took place shortly after Musk attacked the Anti-Defamation League, Netanyahu urged the billionaire to strike a balance between the protection of free speech online and fighting hate speech.