Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said Tuesday that billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk is “not a serious guy” after Musk called Kelly a “traitor” for posting about his visit to war-torn Ukraine and urging American support for the country.
“Elon, I don’t really, you know, take him seriously,” Kelly said Tuesday on “CBS Mornings.” “He’s not a serious guy. He’s been slashing and burning the federal government at the expense of folks that are trying to get by and live their lives, and many of those are veterans.”
Musk, who owns the social media platform X, has become a close adviser to President Trump as the unofficial head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has been slashing government funding and jobs in alignment with Mr. Trump’s agenda.
Kelly visited Ukraine recently, three years after the Russian invasion, posting on social media after the trip that “we can’t give up on Ukraine.”
U.S. support for Ukraine is now unclear after a heated Feb. 28 Oval Office meeting between Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance on one side and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the other. Mr. Trump has made statements blaming Zelenskyy for starting the war and calling him a “dictator,” while Vance accused Zelenskyy of being ungrateful. Since then, sources have confirmed to CBS News that the U.S. has paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
Kelly said on “CBS Mornings” that the meeting’s outcome was a “historic mistake.”
“I think that’s gonna go down in history as one of the dumber things a president has ever done,” he added.
Several key Trump administration officials are currently in Saudi Arabia for diplomatic talks led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on how to end the war, and announced Tuesday that Ukraine has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire, which will be presented to Russia next.
Kelly said that “ideally” he’d like to see Zelenskyy “get all of it back and get the Russians out of his country.”
“And one day I hope to see Putin rotting in a prison cell somewhere,” Kelly continued. “I think that’s a possibility. He is a criminal. He is intentionally targeting children’s hospitals and schools to kill little kids. I mean, this guy’s one of the worst guys on the planet. And Donald Trump looks at him as some, somehow like he’s his buddy. I don’t get it. It is not good for us and our national security. It makes us look weak and we are less safe because of it.”
In his social media post, Kelly, who served as a fighter pilot in the Gulf War, said his goal in the Senate is “to keep us out of wars,” but “when things go sideways and we find ourselves on the battlefield in a foreign land or God forbid, at home, the first call I’d want to make is to our Ukrainian friends.”
“Donald Trump is trying to weaken Ukraine’s hand and we are owed an explanation,” Kelly wrote. “If Putin gains ground he won’t agree to a ceasefire and will eventually threaten a NATO ally and this puts American troops and the American people at risk.”
In a comment in response to the lengthy thread, Musk wrote “You are a traitor” without any explanation.
Kelly said that Musk, Mr. Trump and the White House “generally doesn’t like anybody who has a different view on policies.”
