Tech titan Elon Musk, who has been advising President-elect Donald Trump, doubled down on his calls to prosecute former chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“My pronouns are still prosecute/Fauci,” Musk wrote on X on Tuesday.
The publish was a reply to a pro-Trump account with the deal with “Insurrection Barbie.”
“Fauci retired from the federal bureaucracy as the highest paid government employee, with a $480,654 salary. His pension is estimated to cost 355,000 per year. His net worth is 11 million dollars. Not bad for a “public” servant,” Rebellion Barbie wrote.
“So it’s stunning that in addition to all of that, we spent $15 million on his security for the past two years. That’s $15 million dollars that nobody asked us if we wanted to fork over to America’s richest bureaucrat. Let’s not forget the royalties he made from the vaccine manufacturers for pushing that shot. How much was that again? Like 5 million dollars?” the publish mentioned.
The Tesla and SpaceX founder had known as for Fauci’s prosecution in an analogous publish two years in the past, saying Fauci “lied to Congress” and funded “research that killed millions of people.”
In early 2023, Fauci known as Musk’s claims in opposition to him “insanity.”
“Prosecute me for what? What are they talking about? I wish I could figure out what the heck they’re talking about. I think they’re just going off the deep end,” Fauci mentioned.
Musk – the richest particular person on this planet with a web value of $320.2 billion, in accordance with Forbes – has a years-long historical past of attacking Fauci over his dealing with of the pandemic.
In 2020, he known as panic over the pandemic “dumb.” After his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022, Musk ended the platform’s ban on questioning the origins of COVID-19.
Fauci stepped down from his White Home place and as director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Illnesses on the finish of 2022.
In June, he testified earlier than a Home panel investigating the virus’ origins.
Republican lawmakers grilled Fauci on claims that he funded analysis that created extra harmful, transmissible strains of the virus in a lab in Wuhan, the Chinese language metropolis the place COVID-19 was first detected. Representatives additionally questioned whether or not Fauci was concerned in a lab leak cover-up.
Fauci mentioned the accusations had been “absolutely false and simply preposterous.”
Musk has been one among President-elect Donald Trump’s largest backers throughout this yr’s race for the White Home.
He donated greater than $100 million to a pro-Trump PAC, rallied on Trump’s behalf in key swing states and swayed Individuals to vote early with a $1 million-a-day sweepstakes.
Trump has dedicated to a pitch from Musk to create a authorities effectivity fee – and permit the billionaire to take the helm.
Final month, Musk mentioned he would use a authorities place to remove regulatory blocks to approving totally autonomous EVs – one of many major challenges his firm faces.
He additionally claimed he may save the federal government at the least $2 trillion from the federal price range.