Why Elon Musk Blasts ‘Communists’ While Bowing To China

Casey Michel (0:00)

Elon Musk calling Democrats communists. At the same time, he's been on his knees to the Chinese Communist Party for years.

Casey Michel (0:08)

Chinese Communist Party welcomed him with open arms. What officials in China realized is that that is an incredible piece of leverage to hold over a man who was even by then becoming one of the most prominent corporate figures in the United States.

John Johnston (0:23)

Hi, everyone, JJ here. Welcome back to The Lounge. Well, today I want to address Elon Musk's apparent hypocrisy when it comes to China and communism too. I don't think I've talked about this before, but today's the day because there are some recent examples. Let's for some context go back to see what Elon Musk has actually said on his own platform. So leading up to the last election, Elon Musk, of course, on the rampage there and supporting Trump. So when was this? September 2nd, 2024 He said, Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit? So this is obviously AI.

So a bit of a joke, but not really, obviously a political attack. This one as well, Kamala is quite literally a communist, Elon says.

She wants not merely equal opportunity, but equal outcomes. So yes, another political attack. He also says, Bernie is a communist. Obviously somebody corrects with socialist, not communist. And also he sees Steve Bannon is a communist as well. So even people in MAGA or part of MAGA calling them communist. Now I've noticed online, I mean, I've been called a communist just for the record. I'm not a communist at all. You know, especially Americans call people communist online without actually really knowing what it means. Elon Musk here.

Colleges have become far left, often unashamedly communist indoctrination camps. Isn't that interesting? And also this, the mayor of LA is going full communist. Recall her before it's too late. So this is 2025

And let's address the hypocrisy here. So Elon Musk has a big factory, a big Tesla factory in China, has worked with China for 10 years or maybe more. And here he is talking about China being asked about President Xi. In fact, listen to what he says.

Elon Musk (2:30)

You have met with President Xi. What's your impression about President Xi as a leader? Well, he seems like a great leader. I mean, he's under his tenure, China has prospered immensely. I mean, I've seen it firsthand. Like if you visit China and you see the amount of progress that happens from one year to the next or even within a year, it's very visible. Like you can see the new buildings, the new infrastructure, and it's also obvious to see that, just walking around the streets, the increased prosperity of the average Chinese citizen has increased tremendously and that's happened under President Xi while he's been the leader of China.

So he's clearly done an excellent job and is very capable.

John Johnston (3:14)

Okay. So my opinion of China or the US doesn't matter. I've criticisms of both, of course, but this is about Elon Musk. And so you can see the absolute hypocrisy here and you can see the reasons for it. He's wanting to work with China, obviously, and does China really own him to a certain extent because he's built this massive factory here? They certainly have leverage. Now, I ran across this discussion here. There's a new video from Gil Durand, the nerd, right? The corruption is the point. Casey Michael on America's new billionaire oligarch.

He's talking to another writer with whose book I'm reading at the moment. These are the two books, by the way, highly recommend both of them. I haven't finished Casey Michael's book yet, but they're talking about Elon's history and hypocrisy when it comes to China.

Casey Michel (4:04)

But I thought you brought the focus back to something really interesting and early in his turn to the dark side, if it was even a turn. A lot of us can remember a time when Elon Musk seemed like a humble, self-effacing guy who wanted to stop climate change by getting everybody to use electric cars. I remember that very clearly. It's like a Twilight Zone episode now, where that guy ends up being perhaps one of the worst villains in history.

But it didn't happen overnight, and there were early signs that Elon Musk was not a good person, specifically his relationship with China, which you illuminate in your book. Elon Musk calling Democrats communists. At the same time, he's been on his knees to the Chinese Communist Party for years.

John Johnston (4:47)

Okay, so we saw examples of him literally publicly calling Democrats communists, well, on his knees to China as well.