Elon Musk defends criticism of George Soros, shrugs off financial risks of sharing his views

AUSTIN, Texas. Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk on Tuesday defended his recent criticism of globalist political donor George Soros, as well as the central ideal of free speech, saying he won’t be cowed into hiding his opinions even if it costs him money. Musk also responded to a question about whether he regretted voting for Joe Biden in 2020, joking he would prefer if America could elect “a normal human being as president.”

Musk made the remarks in an interview with CNBC host David Faber in Austin, Texas, during Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting. The interview, which aired Tuesday, touched on myriad topics ranging from artificial intelligence, the upcoming 2024 presidential election, and Musk’s often-controversial tweets.

“Let’s talk about your tweets, because it comes up a lot,” Faber said, suggesting that some of Musk’s tweets appear to support “conspiracy theories.”

“Well, yes, but sometimes conspiracy theories have turned out to be true,” Musk responded, pointing as an example to the Hunter Biden laptop story which had been denounced by legacy media outlets and government officials as “Russian disinformation” and censored on social media platforms before it was proven to be authentic.

“That was a pretty big deal,” Musk said, arguing that the “suppression of the information that was relevant to the public” amounted to “election interference.”

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Asking Musk how he decides what to comment on and what not to, Faber highlighted a recent post by Musk in which he blasted far-left political financier George Soros, saying the Democratic mega-donor reminded him of mutant Marvel villain Magneto.

Soros’ Open Society Foundation has notably provided massive funding for Democrats, including backing soft-on-crime progressive district attorneys and funneling millions of dollars into pro-abortion efforts.

Reading Musk’s May 15 tweet aloud, Faber noted that Musk said Soros “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization” and “hates humanity.”

“Yeah, I think that’s true,” Musk told the CNBC interviewer. “That’s my opinion.”

“Okay, but why share it?” Faber asked. “Why share it when people who buy Teslas might disagree with you? Advertisers on Twitter may not agree with you?”

“I mean, this is freedom of speech, I’m allowed to say what I want,” Musk said.

Affirming Musk’s right to do so, Faber continued to try to ascertain the reasons why Musk would share controversial opinions, especially if his tweets might “hurt the company.” 

“Are there Tesla owners who say ‘I don’t agree with his political position, and I know it because he shares so much’?” he suggested. “Or are there advertisers on Twitter that Linda Yaccarino [Twitter’s new CEO, a World Economic Forum executive] will come and say, ‘You gotta stop, man, you know, I can’t get these ads because some of the things you tweet.’”

After a lengthy silence, Musk said the issue reminded him of a scene from the 1987 movie “The Princess Bride” in which Spanish swordfighter Inigo Montoya, played by Mandy Patankin, finally comes face-to-face with the man who killed his father and urges him to beg for his life before Montoya carries out his revenge.

“He says, ‘offer me money. Offer me power. I don’t care,’” Musk recounted. 

“So you just don’t care?” Faber asked.

“I’ll say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it,” Musk said.

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The controversial billionaire also gave his thoughts about U.S. politics, arguing that the president of the United States should at least be competent as a chief executive 0fficer (CEO) of the country.

Asked whether he regrets casting his vote for Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Musk responded, laughing, “man, I wish we could just have a normal human being as president, that’s what I want.”