Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez skewered Elon Musk as “morally vacant” and “not smart” for his push to cut trillions of dollars from the U.S. government — adding another chapter to their ongoing feud.
The New York politician blasted Musk during a 92-minute live video on Instagram on Monday evening.
“This dude is probably one of the most unintelligent billionaires I have ever met or seen or witnessed,” Ocasio-Cortez said while chuckling.
She added Musk is one of the “least knowledgeable” people to be making decisions about the U.S. government after Musk spent the weekend gutting USAID.
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Musk, beyond owning X, runs Tesla and SpaceX, among other companies. He has drawn the ire of many left-leaning critics in recent months, though, for his push into politics. Musk notably donated $288 million to help elect President Donald Trump and other Republican politicians last year, and has now become a target of fresh criticism for his aggressive push to trim the federal bureaucracy.
The Treasury Department recently gave the Department of Government Efficiency — or DOGE, the new department Musk runs — access to the payment system for government benefits, grants and tax refunds; the system, which is usually run by civil servants, controls trillions of dollars in payments. Musk on Monday said he also received approval from President Trump to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development.
President Trump on Monday said Musk “can’t do and won’t do” anything that does not receive his administration’s approval.
Last week, Musk said he is aiming to cut $1 trillion to $2 trillion in annual government spending. That aggressive goal would represent up to 30% of annual spending, after the federal government spent $6.75 trillion in 2024. He also re-shared an X post on Monday showing DOGE had already cut $1 billion in government spending on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
These moves have led to harsh criticism from several media voices and prominent left-leaning politicians, including from Hillary Clinton, who called Musk an “unelected oligarch” on Monday.
Musk fired back at one of those critics — Sen. Chuck Schumer — on Monday, saying he was having a “hysterical” reaction to the cuts DOGE was making.
This was not the first spat between Ocasio-Cortez and Musk. To point to a few examples, in 2023, the world’s richest man said she was “just not that smart” after she compared illegal immigrants to those who came to the country via Ellis Island at the turn of the 20th Century. And more recently, Ocasio-Cortez ripped Musk for a gesture at a Trump inauguration rally that many compared to a Nazi salute, saying “in this country, we hate Nazis.”
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