Elon Musk might be used to criticism from the public and media, but the harshest words this week came from someone much closer to home — his own father.
In a scathing new interview with Sky News, Errol Musk didn’t hold back when asked about his billionaire son’s foray into politics.
Known for his controversial takes and a rocky history with his children, the elder Musk painted a not-so-flattering picture of his son’s political skills.
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“He’s not a very good conversationalist,” Errol said plainly. “He’s not a very good politician at all.”
That wasn’t all. The South African former engineer and ex-emerald miner said Elon Musk lacked the “gift of gab” and suggested that he had actually warned him against diving into the political arena. In Errol’s view, politics is like a “human swimming pool” where no one stays afloat for long — not even political giants like Winston Churchill or Donald Trump.
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This latest round of criticism comes at an awkward time for Elon, who just stepped down from his role as a “special government employee” in the U.S. — a position tied to his involvement with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (or “Doge”). Despite their famously estranged relationship, Errol told GB News that Elon and Trump still maintain a “good relationship.”
But the interview didn’t stop at family commentary. Things took a sharp turn when Errol launched into a bizarre debate with broadcaster Gillian Joseph, a Black journalist, about so-called “white genocide” in South Africa. When Joseph rightly pointed out that a video Donald Trump shared on social media — allegedly showing violence against white farmers — was actually filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and taken out of context, Errol refused to back down.
He snapped: “That’s not true,” he snapped, repeatedly talking over Joseph while insisting the footage was legitimate. Joseph challenged: “Where’s the evidence?”, as Errol responded with a defensive string of “no, no, no.”
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The whole segment bore a strange resemblance to Elon’s own interview behaviour at Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum earlier this month, where he awkwardly shut down a female reporter who didn’t laugh at one of his jokes.
For all the public feuding and personal distance, it seems the Musk men might have more in common than they’d like to admit — especially when it comes to how they handle criticism and women.
They might be estranged, but the classic phrase “like father, like son” seems to hold some truth here.