One of Elon Musk’s first televised interviews since leaving the White House got off to a shaky start Sunday when the tech billionaire tried to elude questions about President Donald Trump.
“CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent David Pogue traveled to SpaceX’s Brownsville, Texas, headquarters to chat with Musk, who left his controversial role as a special government employee last week.
Their chat, however, got awkward from the get-go when Pogue attempted to ask about some of Trump’s policies, including tariffs and an attempted crackdown on international students at Harvard University and other top schools.
“You know, tariffs always affect things a little bit,” Musk replied when Pogue asked if the president’s erratic trade wars had impacted his businesses.
And when the journalist asked for his thoughts on Trump’s efforts to ban Harvard from accepting students from outside the U.S., Musk visibly bristled at the inquiry.
“I think we want to stick to, you know, the subject of the day — which is spaceships, as opposed to presidential policy,” the South African native replied.
Watch Elon Musk’s “CBS Sunday Morning” interview below.
When Pogue suggested he’d been “told anything’s good” with regard to his interview questions, Musk shut him down yet again.
“Well … no,” he said.
Not surprisingly, the interview segment drew heated responses from viewers online.
“Awkward, strange and untrustworthy. He loves the limelight. He has nothing substantive to offer intellectually,” one person wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Another added on TikTok: “The guy who stuck his nose in our business has limits on his own. Interesting.”
Despite Musk’s unwillingness to discuss much about the Trump administration with “CBS Sunday Morning,” he criticized Republicans on X Tuesday, calling their support of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill slashing taxes and Medicaid as “a disgusting abomination.”
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” he wrote. In a follow-up post, he added, “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
Two Republican senators, Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have since signaled their agreement.