Elon Musk called for the United States to withdraw from NATO and the United Nations.
His statement came amid a flurry of posts on X criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine after Friday’s contentious meeting between Zelensky, President Donald Trump, and Vice President JD Vance, which has thrown the U.S.-Ukraine relationship into turmoil. The Tesla CEO’s comments reflect his growing disillusionment with Kyiv, despite playing a critical role in the country’s defense.
THE TRUMP-ZELENSKY MEETING EXPLAINED
“I agree,” Musk said, quoting a post on X saying that the U.S. should leave NATO and the U.N.
The call from one of Trump’s closest advisers is likely to trigger further panic among European leaders, who have long feared that the president intends to withdraw from the pact.
Musk’s most recent surge of posts critiquing Ukraine was triggered by Friday’s meeting. One of his first reactions was to pledge to have the Department of Government Efficiency look at the U.S.’s aid to Ukraine.
“Time to find out what really happened to the hundreds of billions of dollars sent to Ukraine,” he said hours after the spat.
The tech billionaire also posted a meme lampooning Zelensky’s insistence on a U.S. security guarantee as a condition for a truce, portraying it as analogous to refusing to stop a tram that was crushing a line of people.
“You can stop the tram at any moment, but you refuse because you need guarantees that it won’t start moving again in a few years,” the text on the meme read, with the man holding the lever to stop the tram labeled “Zelensky.”
Musk also shared numerous posts criticizing NATO and Ukraine.
“NATO is a Cold War relic that needs to be relegated to a talking kiosk at the Smithsonian,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said in a post shared by Musk.
One video reposted by Musk showed what appeared to be Ukrainian military recruiters kidnapping a man and forcing him into a van as he pleaded for help, saying he had a child alone at home. The video is one of many showing the phenomenon of the Ukrainian military press ganging conscripts, something referenced by Vance to Zelensky when the Friday meeting became heated.
“It’s so easy to sit in European capitals or nice US TV studios and cheer war in Ukraine all to derive a feeling of purpose and self-esteem, because those being sent to die are not them but Ukrainians violently dragged off the street and sent as cannon fodder on the front lines,” journalist Glenn Greenwald said, quoting the video.
Musk’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war has changed significantly since its early days, but he has remained one of the most important figures in Ukraine’s defense.
In conjunction with its air and land invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, Russia launched a sophisticated cyberattack against the American communications company Viasat, which the Ukrainian military was fully reliant on for its communications. The attack crippled Ukrainian communications, while another cyberattack against Ukrainian air defenses put much of the network offline.
The U.S. turned to Musk, purchasing thousands of Starlink terminals to send to Ukraine. Musk announced that Starlink was active in Ukraine just two days after the Russian invasion. Within days, the Ukrainian military had fully switched its communications backbone over to Starlink.
The move made Musk a hero in Ukraine in the early days, with Zelensky himself thanking the tech mogul via videochat and inviting him to visit the country.
Popular Ukrainian goodwill toward Musk reversed in October 2022, when he suggested that Ukraine should sue for a peace that would include acknowledging Crimea as part of Russia.
The proposal drew an explosion in criticism from pro-Ukrainian figures on Twitter, many of whom accused Musk of being a Kremlin apologist, including an expletive from Ukraine’s then-ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk.
“F*** off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk,” Melnyk posted on X, followed by, “The only outcome ist (sic) that now no Ukrainian will EVER buy your f…ing tesla crap. So good luck to you .@elonmusk.”
Zelensky also criticized Musk at the time, running a poll suggesting that he “supports Russia.”
UKRAINIAN DIPLOMAT TELLS ELON MUSK TO ‘F*** OFF’ OVER PEACE DEAL PROPOSAL
Musk has since criticized the Ukrainian government, Zelensky, and the war effort on several other occasions, drawing the ire of Ukrainian officials and supporters. His string of posts beginning Friday resulted in some of his heaviest criticism.
Rick Wilson, head of the Lincoln Project, reposted a message from one of the group’s senior advisers saying that Musk supported a “genocidal dictator,” referencing Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that the tech billionaire would one day be held accountable by something analogous to the Nuremberg Trials.