Elon Musk explains what he was doing after bizarre footage emerged from dinner with Donald Trump

Elon Musk has offered some insight into what was actually going on in bizarre footage of him which emerged from a dinner he had with president Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

I've never had the chance to share dinner with someone of particularly high social standing, but if I did I can imagine I'd pull out everything I know about table etiquette and throw it into overdrive.

Tea with the king? There will be a napkin on my lap and a pinky in the air. Dinner with the president? Well, it might not be quite as strict, but I'm pretty confident I wouldn't start playing with my cutlery.

But Musk had other ideas when he had the chance to dine with Trump at his Palm Beach estate in Florida on March 15, when the pair were joined by other guests such as Shivon Zilis, who shares four children with Musk, as well as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

In a video which has since gone viral, Musk could be seen staring at a collection of cutlery he'd laid out on his hand, slowly moving it around as Trump chatted to another guest next to him.

The SpaceX founder has since responded to explain what he was doing in the video, writing: "A fork and two spoons balanced on the tip of my finger."

Musk explained his antics in a proud post on Twitter (X/@elonmusk)

It might be a pretty cool party trick, but maybe not the best one to pull out in the presence of one of the most powerful men on Earth? That's just my opinion though - like I say, I'm inexperienced in that particular area.

Though Musk seems pretty proud of his accomplishment, viewers were quick to share their own thoughts on the clip as one suggested Musk appeared to be 'bored' while at the dinner.

Elon Musk, playing with cutlery (Twitter)

"A grown man, not engaged with anyone, sitting at dinner with the President of the United States, playing with the silverware is mind-boggling." one viewer wrote in part on Twitter.

Another wrote: "I can relate to this level of boredom at a dinner party."

However, one defensive viewer suggested Musk wasn't bored at all, claiming instead there was actually a much more intellectual reason for Musk's dinnertime antics.

They wrote: "It's definitely a physics thing. The way he's looking at it it makes you think he's thinking about the dynamics with some new technology he's dreaming up. He's always thinking about very deep things. This is part of his mind being a storm, I imagine. This is very much a part of who he is."

It's definitely possible it was about physics. But I think it's more likely that Musk just spotted the cutlery and decided to give it a go.