WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. Secret Service

said on Monday it was aware of a post by billionaire Elon Musk's

on the X social media platform musing about a lack of

assassination attempts on President Joe Biden and Vice President

Kamala Harris.

Musk, who owns the platform, formerly known as Twitter, put

up the post after a man suspected of planning to assassinate

former President Donald Trump at his golf course in West Palm

Beach was arrested on Sunday.

A Trump supporter and the CEO of Tesla, Musk wrote

on Sunday: "And no one is even trying to assassinate

Biden/Kamala," a post he ended with an emoji of a face with a

raised eyebrow.

He was quickly criticized by X users from the left and

right, who said they were concerned his words to his nearly 200

million X followers could incite violence against Biden and

Harris.

Musk deleted the post but not before the Secret Service,

tasked with protecting current and former presidents, vice

presidents and other notable officials, took notice.

"The Secret Service is aware of the social media post made

by Elon Musk and as a matter of practice, we do not comment on

matters involving protective intelligence," a spokesperson told

Reuters in an email. "We can say, however, that the Secret

Service investigates all threats related to our protectees."

The spokesperson declined to specify whether the agency had

reached out to Musk, who seemed to suggest in follow-up posts

that he had been making a joke.

"Well, one lesson I've learned is that just because I say

something to a group and they laugh doesn't mean it's going to

be all that hilarious as a post on X," he wrote. "Turns out that

jokes are WAY less funny if people don't know the context and

the delivery is plain text."

Harris, a Democrat running against the Republican Trump in

the 2024 election, and Biden both issued statements on Sunday

night expressing relief that Trump had not been harmed.