Elon Musk Claims He’s ‘Never Done Anything Harmful’ in Fox Interview
Elon Musk, who is leading Donald Trump’s unprecedented purge of the federal workforce, claimed it doesn’t make sense that people dislike him because he’s only ever “done productive things” and has “never done anything harmful.”
Americans — to an ever increasing proportion — disagree. As tens of thousands of federal employees and their families wait in limbo to see if they will retain (or regain) their jobs, the economy takes a downturn, entitlement programs are cut or crippled, and international aid is slashed with devastating consequences, Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are pissing off a lot of people. A slew of recent polling has found that an increasing majority of Americans view the billionaire and his hack-and-slash treatment of the government negatively, even if they support major reforms.
On Tuesday, a federal judge found that Musk and DOGE “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways” when they shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development, America’s foreign aid bureau, and terminated thousands of employees.
Later that day, Musk appeared on Fox News and discussed a recent string of protests as well as attacks and vandalism against Tesla vehicles and dealerships — claiming it’s happening because he and DOGE are uncovering fraud.
“It turns out, when you take away people’s, you know, the money they’re receiving fraudulently, they get very upset, and they basically want to kill me because I’m stopping their fraud, and they want to hurt Tesla because we’re stopping this, this terrible waste and corruption in the government,” Musk said, adding: “Bad people will do bad things.”
Of course, Musk and DOGE have found exceedingly little fraud. They have, however, helped purge tens of thousands of federal workers, threatening the stability of essential government services like Social Security — while also moving to make it harder for seniors to access their benefits.
At one point in the interview, Musk — who recently threatened to fire every federal worker who ignores his HR emails — demanded more empathy from Democrats amid the attacks on Tesla. “It’s really come as quite a shock to me that there’s this level of hatred and violence from the left,” he told Sean Hannity. “I thought the left Democrats were supposed to be the party of empathy, the party of caring, and yet they’re burning down cars. They’re firebombing dealerships. They’re firing bullets into dealerships.”
He continued: “Tesla is a peaceful company. We’ve never done anything harmful. I’ve never done anything harmful. I’ve only done productive things. So I think we just have a deranged — there’s some kind of mental illness thing going on here, because this doesn’t make any sense.”
Former employees of Musk’s companies, government regulators, several of his ex-partners, his children, and the virtual sea of people being negatively affected by Musk’s work as an unelected shadow-president might disagree with the notion that the billionaire has “never done anything harmful,” and some are making themselves heard.
On Tuesday, Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) was confronted by furious constituents at a town hall in his home district, including with questions about Musk’s conflicts of interests. Musk’s company SpaceX has received billions in contracts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Trump administration is moving to incorporate Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet business, throughout the federal government.
“What makes you think that [Musk] has no conflict of interest?” one person asked Flood. “Do you think he would cut that before he would cut our Medicare or our Social Security or our jobs?”
Flood responded that he remained in full “support [of] Elon Musk, and the Department of Government Efficiency.” To which the room exploded into a chorus of boos and jeers against the Nebraska representative.
Flood is not the only lawmaker facing furious voters, to the point that earlier this month the National Republican Congressional Committee advised members of the GOP to just stop holding town halls. GOP leaders have — as is routine these days — accused critics of being paid protesters as a way of dismissing their constituents’ concerns. Musk has capitalized on the allegation.
“There are larger forces at work as well,” he told Hannity on Tuesday, speaking about the Tesla attacks and protests. “I don’t know who’s funding it and who’s coordinating it, because this is, this is crazy. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Hannity lamented that the people who worked for Tesla could potentially “lose their jobs.” Yet neither he nor Musk bothered to spare an empathetic thought for the thousands of Americans DOGE rendered unemployed the last two months, and the potentially devastating domestic and international ramifications of his corrupt political project.
