Elon Musk has lashed out at José Andrés after the celebrity chef mocked the Tesla and SpaceX CEO over his disastrous interview with The Economist.
Musk has been melting down for days on X, the social media platform he owns, following the release of the car-crash interview with The Economist’s editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes.
Among the most damning moments from the interview was Minton Beddoes confronting Musk for amplifying far-right views on X, and Musk desperately insisted he is a “popular guy” because he has 250 million followers.
Beddoes, who is British, also questioned why Musk repeatedly uses his huge platform to suggest the U.K. is on the verge of a “civil war,” that Europe is “overrun with terrifying Muslim immigrants,” and that there is “rape on every corner.”
Over the weekend, Musk replied to one X user criticizing Beddoes to suggest she is a “traitor to the West, plain and simple.”
The response earned a scathing rebuke from Andrés, the award-winning chef who owns multiple restaurants across the U.S. and founded the nonprofit World Central Kitchen.
“Elon drink a glass of water before you tweet…you may build rockets and satellites and cars and anything else you want…and we thank you! but you can not call a great journalist that actually ask you good questions and enemy to humanity!” Andrés posted on X.
“You sound and act like a tyrant….change!”
In reply, the 55-year-old Musk responded: “You’re an a-----e.”
One of the most fiery exchanges in The Economist interview came when Beddoes asked Musk whether he is aware that people “loathe” him because of how much he has trying to influence politics around the world with hardline rhetoric.
“Why should you be able to shape European politics? You don’t even live there,” Beddoes said. “Do you see why this makes people think that this man who has all this power, he’s the world’s richest man, he thinks he has a right to influence our politics?
“It’s why people loathe you. I mean, some people do loathe you.”
In response, Musk suggested he doesn’t care that some people may hate him, while arguing that his social media following proves his popularity.
“The fact that, as you pointed out, a quarter billion people follow me is that I think a lot more people actually like me than don’t.”
Musk then borrowed from the playbook of his on-again, off-again ally Donald Trump by suggesting Beddoes and the media are more disliked than he is.
“The shoe is on the other foot. They hate you. They hate you far more than they hate me,” Musk said. “I think you’re the problem. The media.”
