Elon Musk slams MacKenzie Scott for donating billions to charities

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Side-by-side photo of Elon Musk and MacKenzie Scott. (Musk photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Scott photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

Elon Musk is criticizing MacKenzie Scott for her charitable donations to charities.

The Space X founder made his remarks on  X, formerly Twitter, in response to another user who commented about Scott giving money to organizations centering on “issues of race and/or gender.”

“‘Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse’ should filed be listed among ‘Reasons that Western Civilization died,’” Musk wrote in an X post referencing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife.

A motive behind Musk’s critical opinion of Scott’s philanthropy is unknown, but he’s been outspoken before on efforts to push for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Business Insider reported.

Musk has taken issue with Scott’s contributions before. In 2022, he discussed voting Republican and claimed the Democratic Party was unfair to his companies, Tesla and Space X.

He alleged in a 2022 social media post that his companies were taking a backseat because Scott was giving money to certain charities.

Separately, in January 2024, Musk posted a remark on X responding to another user saying, “DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it.”

Last year, Scott donated $2.1 billion, bringing her total reported giving to over $16 billion since 2019.

The philanthropist typically declines to comment about her donations, which often are the largest a nonprofit has ever received, beyond blog posts, now published on her website, which she launched in December 2022, the Associated Press reported.

In March 2023, Scott opened an application process to receive funding, promising to grant $1 million to 250 organizations. Some 6,300 nonprofits applied, according to Lever for Change, the organization overseeing the application process, which has said it will announce the winners in early 2024.

Scott has promised to give away more than half of her wealth, which mainly comes from her divorce from Bezos.