LEFT: Chuck Todd (William B. Plowman/NBC ) RIGHT: Elon Musk (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Chuck Todd denounced Elon Musk during a conversation recorded for Chris Cillizza’s So What Substack, calling him un-American and a “five-alarm fire” in a scorching rant.
“If democracy is a quote unquote, ‘left-wing ideology’ to Elon Musk, I mean, this man is un-American as far as my definition of America is,” said Todd. “And I just-, I’m-, the fact that more people aren’t offended by this man’s actions, I mean, it shows you how much he has helped successfully destroy the trusted information ecosystem because this is a five-alarm fire. Elon Musk is a five-alarm fire and the country doesn’t realize it yet.”
Musk has emerged as not only the world’s richest man, but one of the most powerful players in American politics since he bought Twitter in 2022 and subsequently threw his weight behind President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
As the head of Trump’s newly-minted Department of Government Efficiency, Musk has flexed his muscles, calling for the disbandment of the United States Agency for International Development, seeking access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems, and much more.
Todd’s indictment of Musk comes just a few days after he left his longtime perch at NBC, where he had been one of the faces of the network’s news coverage. He has previously opined that Musk “needs a lesson in basic democracy.”
“You don’t have the votes. I mean, you’re sitting here with this very narrow majority. They have no choice but to work with Democrats. If you don’t want to work with Democrats, go win more elections,” said Todd on air in December.
