Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk might be the richest man in the world, but he still has to answer to his mother.
Maye Musk interrupted her son’s red-carpet interview at Monday evening’s Met Gala, telling the “Entertainment Tonight” correspondent that he didn’t listen to her.
Elon Musk on his critics, the future of humanity and bringing his mom to the #MetGala. pic.twitter.com/wlcHlqbcy9
— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) May 3, 2022
“Sir, I’d say you are the man who’s being much talked about around town, and around the world and maybe on Twitter, I don’t know, social media’s kinda going bananas over you right now,” the ET host began.
“I guess that’s — yeah, that’s probably true,” Musk replied.
“Well, a lot of folks — there are some critics out there that would say, why not —” the host continued.
“Critics?” Musk appeared to feign shock. “What?”
“You?” the host played along. “Zero. Zero.”
“Thank goodness, phew,” Musk continued the joke. “For a second there I was worried.”
The host went on to point out that some critics had wondered why Musk chose to buy a social media platform when he could have used the money to do something more philanthropic.
“Well, I do do a lot of things philanthropically,” Musk replied. “Really, my companies are intended to do good for the future of humanity, with Tesla trying to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport and energy. And SpaceX is providing internet to the least served people around the world.”
“The best space company in the world,” Maye interrupted then, repeating, “In the world!”
“And also what you’ve done for Ukraine as well,” the host added.
“Yeah,” Musk agreed. “Absolutely. So we were able to help Ukraine with the Starlink terminals and give them connectivity in particularly some of the hardest hit areas.”
“So aspirationally, I am trying to do good for humanity and the future of civilization,” he concluded.
“Where did you get this mentality?” the host asked, turning to Maye and asking, “Where did your son get this mentality?”
“I told him not to take on the world and the universe, and he didn’t listen,” Maye laughed.
“Clearly, not listening to mom,” the host laughed.
“Doesn’t listen to his mom,” Maye agreed.
The host turned back to Musk with one final question — namely, why he felt that it was important to attend an event like the Met Gala with all of the other things he had going on in his businesses and his life.
Maye interrupted again, answering for him: “I wanted him to come.”
“Yeah,” Musk laughed. “My mom wanted to come, so I brought my mom. That’s the reason.”