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News.com.au
a day ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Errol Musk says son Elon has ‘PTSD' as he lands in Moscow for meeting with far-right figures
While his son battles with the President of the United States, Errol Musk has landed in Moscow to mingle with the Kremlin's ideological vanguard. The 78-year-old father of Elon Musk is attending the Forum of the Future 2050, a far-right Russian conference hosted by the Tsargrad Institute and led by ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin, according to local newspaper Kommersant. 'I am eager to meet everyone. As far as I know, Russians are among the most intelligent people on the planet. It would be foolish not to ask their opinion on all sorts of issues,' Musk Snr told Russian state media outlet TASS. The event includes panel sessions with titles like 'The Race for Mars' and 'The Battle for Hearts and Minds: The Ideology of Sovereign Russia.' Speakers include Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, and state TV anchor Ekaterina Andreeva. Errol is a former South African engineer and politician who has previously expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, igniting theories about his son's alleged links to the superpower. But Errol has distanced himself from his son in recent years and told the public to ignore Elon's often erratic comments on world politics. Meanwhile Elon has called his father a 'terrible human being' and described him as being critical and verbally abusive during his childhood. Dad weighs in on Elon's meltdown Errol Musk claimed that his son lashed out at Donald Trump because he had developed 'PTSD' from several months in the spotlight. On top of being the figurehead for several major companies, Musk Jnr took it upon himself to 'rehabilitate' the US government from decades of bloat. But his father says he's made a massive mistake going against the US president, who was the most likely to come out on top once the dust settles. 'So at the moment, Elon is inclined to say that he's made a mistake,' he told Russian press after landing. 'Elon made a mistake, I think, but he's tired, he's stressed. 'Five months of continuous stress, continuous, continuous stress, stress, stress. 'And then in the end, it's just him and Trump left … They still don't know what to do, so they fight with each other until they can come to normal conditions. 'They've had five months at least of intense repair work, removing all the spurious opposition, all the crazies and so on. They've been under a lot of stress.' His father says the fact Trump's bill was pushed through while he was still in the process of DOGE-ing everything in sight rubbed Elon the wrong way. So much so that he started tweeting about his former ally's alleged links to Jeffery Epstein from his X account. 'Recently a new bill was put out — and Elon is still in the 'Let's get everything right' mode,' Errol continued. 'He said, 'No, we must not include in such a bill more of this Democrat stupid schemes and money for them, it's not right'. 'But unfortunately, he doesn't realise that in order to get their votes in the Senate and the Congress, Trump has to do that.…' Musk Snr: 'Foolish not to admire Putin' In April, Musk Snr told BBC Russia it 'would be foolish not to admire Putin,' whom he called 'a strong leader.' The elder Musk's trip to Moscow coincides with an increasingly fraught chapter in his son's public life. Elon Musk has entered open conflict with President Donald Trump, trading barbs with his former ally in an increasingly bizarre online brawl. After stepping down from his informal role as an adviser to Trump's administration last month, Elon has turned sharply critical of the president. At the same time, Elon's posture on the Ukraine war has grown closer to Moscow's messaging. Once hailed for deploying Starlink terminals to Ukraine, Elonhas since accused President Volodymyr Zelensky of losing popular support and claimed S military aid was fuelling a 'never-ending draft meat grinder'. Those remarks have earned him praise from Russian state media and certain Duma members. On June 6, Dmitry Novikov, deputy chair of Russia's foreign affairs committee, even floated the idea of granting Musk Jnr political asylum as rumours swirl over his future in the US. Hi company SpaceX holds contracts worth billions with NASA and the Pentagon, including a $1.8 billion deal to build a classified satellite system for US intelligence. While he has demonstrated he is pro-US, his shifting alignment, coupled with the symbolic presence of his father in Moscow, makes the situation all the more delicate for Washington's defence establishment.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Russia responds to Trump-Musk feud with jokes, jibes and job offers
June 6 (Reuters) - The feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk provoked chatter, mockery and amusement among the ruling class in Moscow, where one senior official joked about hosting peace talks and another said Musk should bring his businesses to Russia. "Elon, don't be upset!" nationalist senator Dmitry Rogozin, who once ran Russia's space programme, wrote on Musk's X social media site. "If you encounter insurmountable problems in the U.S., come to us. Here you will find reliable comrades and complete freedom of technical creativity." Dmitry Medvedev, a senior security official and former president, posted: "We are ready to facilitate the conclusion of a peace deal between D and E for a reasonable fee and to accept Starlink shares as payment. Don't fight, guys!" The public feud between the U.S. president and the world's richest man was an easy target for Russian politicians who have a history of gloating over perceived turmoil in Washington. Margarita Simonyan, one of Russia's most powerful state media executives, mocked it as an example of "modern U.S. political culture" -- "Sort of like the English Industrial Revolution. Only in reverse." Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, who has in the past tried to interest Musk in cooperating with Russia on flights to Mars, asked on X: "Why can't we all just get along?" He then asked Grok, X's AI chatbot, how Musk and Trump could reconcile. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the clash, said it was an internal matter for the U.S., though he was confident that Trump would handle it. "Presidents handle a huge number of different things at the same time, some more and some less important," Peskov said. Others saw clear benefit for Russia from the feud distracting Washington. "We can just be glad that they won't have time for us," said Konstantin Malofeyev, a hardline nationalist tycoon, who said it was now "the best time to strike back" against Ukraine.
