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Bill Gates had some choice words for Elon Musk when asked about Musk’s recent involvement in global politics.
“It’s really insane that he can destabilize the political situations in countries,” Gates told The Sunday Times in an interview published over the weekend.
Musk, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump who spent more than $250 million on his 2024 campaign, has become increasingly vocal about issues in the United Kingdom and Germany, where his EV firm Tesla (TSLA+0.51%) builds hundreds of thousands of Model Y electric SUVs.
More than 200 of Musk’s 616 tweets during the first week of January concerned U.K. politics, mostly focused on Britain’s so-called “grooming gangs,” a decade-old scandal involving child sex abuse cases perpetrated by people of Pakistani heritage. He has repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour Party for, he says, being “deeply complicit” in the scandal and for a slow start to cracking down on the cases. Starmer, who ran the Crown Prosecution Service at the time, later secured key convictions.
Musk has also reportedly discussed ways to oust Starmer ahead of the U.K.’s next election, even as he called for him to resign in public. Trump, on the other hand, has said he gets along with Starnmer and has a “very good relationship” with the prime minister.
“It’s difficult to understand why someone who has a car factory in both China and in Germany, whose rocket business is ultra-dependent on relationships with sovereign nations and who is busy cutting $2 trillion in U.S. government expenses and running five companies, is obsessing about this grooming story in the U.K.,” Gates told the Times. “I’m like, what?”
Musk has also been involved with Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, a right-wing party that has been accused of trivializing the Holocaust and is frequently embroiled in scandal. Musk has endorsed AfD and live-streamed an interview with Alice Weidel, the party’s candidate for chancellor, earlier this month.
On Saturday, during a surprise virtual appearance at an AfD rally, Musk called the AfD the “best hope for Germany” and told the crowd to move on from “past guilt.”
“Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” Musk said, appearing to reference the nation’s history under Nazi rule. “It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything.”
His remarks sparked instant condemnation from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who noted that they came just hours before the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
“You want to promote the right wing but say Nigel Farage is not right wing enough,” Gates told The Times. “I mean, this is insane s—t.”
“We can all overreach. ... If someone is super-smart, and he is, they should think how they can help out,” Gates told the Times after referencing Musk’s affiliation with the AfD. “But this is populist stirring.”
Gates is no stranger to the global stage. After co-founding and achieving success with Microsoft (MSFT+2.86%), he used his new wealth to launch the Gates Foundation, spending billions of dollars to vaccinate against polio and treat and prevent malaria, among other charitable causes.
The foundation has also been accused of having too much power and influence. The organization, working alongside three other groups, operated without strict oversight to combat the global threat of COVID-19, and has been accused of undermining international organizations through its giving.
“I thought the rules of the game were you picked a finite number of things to spout about that you cared for, focused on a few critical things, rather than telling people who they should vote for,” Gates told the Times. “For me it’s only ever about aid. I did think Brexit was a mistake, but I wasn’t tweeting every day.”