The Brief: Elon Musk changed his Twitter name to "Treelon" and donated $1 million to Team Trees' efforts to plant 20 million trees, inspiring praise and memes.

DEEP DIVE
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk joined MrBeast’s #TeamTrees movement to plant 20 billion trees by donating $1 million for Team Trees to plant 1 million trees. Elon Musk’s Team Trees donation is the highest so far among other celebrity and YouTuber donors including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, DJ Alan Walker, MrBeast, Mark Rober, Jeffree Star, jacksepticeye, Jaiden Animations, and many others. According to the Team Trees website, over 8 million trees have been planted so far.
Elon Musk, who has flexed his meme literacy before, changed his Twitter name to “Treelon” and tweeted “For Treebeard,” referring to the wise talking and walking tree in Lord Of The Rings. For Musk, who is worth approximately $23.6 billion, $1 million equals around 0.004% of his fortune. In a defamation suit for calling British diver Vernon Unsworth “pedo guy” on Twitter, Musk recently testified that he is low on cash assets and “financially illiquid.”
Ok, sounds legit, will donate 1M trees
— Treelon (@elonmusk) October 29, 2019
For Treebeard
— Treelon (@elonmusk) October 30, 2019
After Musk promised to donate $1 million, YouTube pledged to match the donation.
Can confirm it's legit. And we'll match the next million to keep #TeamTrees growing🌲
— B🎃🎃Tube (@YouTube) October 30, 2019
Likely aware of the brand’s significance as a meme, Flex Seal donated $1,000 to Team Trees.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” —@TheLorax
We're proud of you @MrBeastYT for bringing awareness to our planet's future. 🌍❤️🌎❤️🌏❤️ A better future for our Flex Fans. 💪#teamtrees 🔗 https://t.co/dHocY1jGYh pic.twitter.com/l5QNHOzfnz
— Flex Seal (@GetFlexSeal) October 30, 2019
Treelon & #TeamTrees Reddit Memes
On Reddit, where much of the momentum for the Team Trees project has been growing, memes applaud ‘Treelon’ Musk as a hero for his donation.
Enhanced meme from dankmemes
A bench streetlight meme about how someone with the username “Ukraine” donated $50,001
“It ain’t much but it’s honest work”
A mini Keanu Reeves meme:
“And in about 5 minutes we’ll be crossing into MrBeast Forest” from dankmemes
A Regular Show ducking under a flyer meme:
#teamtrees from dankmemes