Reaction & Commentary
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO and leader of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) should be demonized, in an apparent escalation of their feud.
Walz was speaking at a town hall in Youngstown, Ohio, when he laid into Musk, whom he has sharply criticized before. He was talking about social media and the Democratic Party’s view on success when he brought up the billionaire tech mogul.
“We’re creating a false narrative for them that everybody is super rich and has Lamborghinis and life is easy,” Walz told the crowd. “But that’s what we’re going to have to figure out in our society about social media and all those things.”
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday “we should demonize” people like Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO. (Reuters)
“But I don’t think we should be the party that demonizes someone because they’re able to afford something,” he added. “What we should demonize is someone like Elon Musk and those people that do that. That’s different.”
Earlier, Walz said Democrats should be conveying a message that it’s “OK to be successful” and that success should be celebrated.
“What my beef is, once you get successful, don’t be a greedy bastard and not pay your taxes,” he said.
Walz, the former 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate, and Musk have traded bards in recent weeks.
The feud began last month when Walz joked that he regularly checks Tesla stock, which was down amid a string of vandalism incidents targeting the electric vehicle company.
Elon Musk and Tesla protest. (Getty Images)
“On the iPhone, they’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day,” Walz said, referencing Tesla’s stock slump as he held up his iPhone during a Wisconsin town hall titled, “The People vs Musk.”
Musk responded by turning the tables on the Democratic governor with a diss about his 2024 election loss.
“Sometimes when I need a little boost, I look at the @JDVance portrait in the White House and thank the Lord,” Musk wrote in response to Walz’s remark.
The White House joined in on hitting back at Walz’s comment regarding the billionaire’s company.
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“When we need a little boost during the day at the White House, we walk around the corner from our office and admire these beautiful portraits,” Trump’s Rapid Response team wrote in a social media post.
Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
