Bill Gates blasted fellow mogul Elon Musk’s “populist stirring” in Europe, calling his influence “insane s–t.”
In a wide-ranging interview with the Times of London, the Microsoft founder pointed to Musk’s meddling in Germany’s upcoming election, as well as comments the Tesla and SpaceX boss has made about UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“It’s really insane that he [Musk] can destabilize the political situations in countries,” Gates said during the sit-down, which was published Sunday.
“I think in the US, foreigners aren’t allowed to give money; other countries maybe should adopt safeguards to make sure super-rich foreigners aren’t distorting their elections.”
Musk — who has become part of President Trump’s inner circle — has backed the far-right AfD party in Germany and called for Germans to “move past” generational guilt, an apparent reference to the nation’s Nazi history.
He has also advised the UK’s right-wing Reform Party to ditch its leader, Nigel Farage, and posted a poll on X asking whether America should “liberate” Britain from its “tyrannical government.”
“You want to promote the right wing but say Nigel Farage is not right wing enough,” Gates told the Times. “I mean, this is insane s–t. You are for the AfD [in Germany].”
Gates, who is promoting his upcoming memoir “Source Code,” noted that with Musk’s great wealth comes great responsibility.
“We can all overreach,” he said. “If someone is super-smart, and he is, they should think how they can help out. But this is populist stirring.”
On Starmer, Musk has boosted a debunked claim that the prime minister once said girls under the age of consent had made “informed choices” – suggesting the leader supported pedophilia. Musk then called for Starmer’s ouster. The false quote was flagged by Musk’s own social media platform.
“It’s difficult to understand why someone who has a car factory in both China and in Germany, whose rocket business is ultra-dependent on relationships with sovereign nations and who is busy cutting $2 trillion in US government expenses and running five companies, is obsessing about this grooming story in the UK. I’m like, what?” Gates said.
The Post reached out to Musk for comment.
Musk had previously slammed Gates over alleged financial support for German publication Der Spiegel.
“Interesting that Gates sends money to Spiegel, which then writes hit pieces about me. Der Spiegel ist korrupt!” Musk posted on X in late December.
Musk drew scrutiny last week after making a gesture during Trump’s inauguration rally that critics likened to a Nazi salute, and then posted jokes about Nazi Germany on X, his social media platform.
He brushed off criticism about the supposed salute, arguing that left-wingers need “better dirty tricks.”
In his interview with The Times, Gates also signaled a departure from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who recently killed the fact-checking policies guarding Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp in favor of a community notes system similar to Musk’s X.
“The whole social media networking problem, including how it affects young people and allows crazy non-factual things to achieve critical mass, worries me,” Gates said. “I am very disappointed that neither governments nor companies seem to be fixing or improving these things.”
Meta’s policy switch fell in line with the staunch anti-censorship stances and emphasis on free speech taken by both Trump and Musk.
But Gates spoke out against this anti-censorship stance, arguing in favor of guardrails that weed out content deemed misinformation.
“This approach isn’t going to be very good. Take vaccine misinformation: that could get dangerous. Children can die of measles,” he said.
