Two years ago, Linda Yaccarino stepped into X (formerly Twitter) as the savior of Elon Musk’s chaotic social media empire.

Today, she quietly left—no fanfare, no official reason—leaving only one question: Why would someone as big as Yaccarino quit so quickly?

It should be noted that when Elon Musk invited Linda Yaccarino to be CEO of X, he expressed his trust and great expectations for her abilities.

But now that this woman has left, the richest billionaire on the planet has only posted a brief post on X with five words: “Thank you for your contributions.”

Regret

Linda Yaccarino is no newcomer to the media industry—she’s the “advertising queen” who helped NBCUniversal earn more than $100 billion over a decade. When Elon Musk brought her to X in June 2023, advertisers expected her to “reset” a platform that was in freefall after a series of controversial decisions by its new boss.

But the New York Times (NYT) noted that in the first months, Yaccarino’s real role was not to run strategy – but to clean up the mess. She had to mend broken relationships with major brands, reassure disoriented employees, and contain the media storm that Musk constantly created.

On the surface, Yaccarino is the CEO, but in reality, Elon Musk still controls everything: from product design, content orientation, to even… changing the company’s name.

At a tech conference in September 2023, Yaccarino was unable to answer a basic question about her strategy of charging all users—an idea Musk has publicly touted. Her inability was no accident, but clear evidence that she had never been given full control.

When Musk began swearing at advertisers to back off, Yaccarino was forced to “fix” the situation with an internal email calling Musk’s remarks “insightful and candid.” In the eyes of marketers, this was no longer leadership—it was PR for uncontrollable behavior.

An X employee commented in August 2023: “Elon is the one in charge.”

Even Elon Musk didn’t make Yaccarino’s job any easier. When major advertisers like Disney and IBM pulled out because their ads were appearing next to pro-Nazi posts, Musk responded with profanity and arrogance. X even sued a group of major advertisers like Mars and Lego, accusing them of conspiring to boycott the platform, creating a chilling effect on the industry. These actions were the exact opposite of Yaccarino’s efforts to mend relations with the advertising community.

One advertising expert quipped, “In this industry, suing a major client is akin to self-destruction.” It was Yaccarino who had to “defuse” the hostile actions—even though she didn’t initiate them.

The result of this “all talk and no action” and power struggle was that during Yaccarino’s tenure, X’s advertising revenue continued to plummet – down an estimated 23%, while the global digital advertising market grew by more than 34%. Efforts like launching a video show with Serena Williams and expanding livestreaming capabilities were not enough to offset the damage to the brand’s reputation.

This shows that Yaccarino has failed to completely revive the company’s business.

According to estimates from the World Advertising Research Center (WARC), X has lost about $5.9 billion in advertising revenue from 2022 to 2023, equivalent to a 46.4% decrease compared to the same period last year.

In a similar vein, another market research firm, eMarketer, estimates that X’s ad revenue in 2025 will be about half of what it was in 2021, suggesting that financial challenges remain despite some advertisers returning.

The last straw was Grok

In March 2025, Musk merged X into xAI – the AI ​​startup he founded – and demoted Yaccarino to the role of “head of department”.

Not long after, xAI’s Grok chatbot posted anti-Semitic comments, causing a public outcry and advertisers to panic. While xAI was responsible for the incident, it was X—and, indirectly, Yaccarino—who became the target of criticism.

Ms. Yaccarino was repeatedly held accountable for X’s missteps, regardless of Musk’s role in them. One former ad agency executive commented that “she was clearly disempowered and out of control,” which was “quite embarrassing from a public perspective.”

Musk’s hiring of Mamhoud Reza Banki as X’s CFO late last year is also said to have weakened Yaccarino’s position.

For those in the industry, it was the final nightmare Yaccarino no longer wanted to face. “She always said she would leave when the time was right,” said a friend. “Now she doesn’t need the job anymore – and there’s no reason to stay.”

Ultimately, Linda Yaccarino’s departure is not just a personal story. It reflects a larger issue: no one—not even the best people—can succeed if they are stifled by a leader who is autocratic, erratic, and unwilling to listen.

Fortune reported that Yaccarino is just one of 15 senior managers who have left Elon Musk over the past year.

Obviously, Elon Musk may be a tech genius, but when he turns social media into a political theater, denies the fundamentals of the advertising industry, and belittles users, no one – not even a very capable Linda Yaccarino – can make a miracle happen.