After billionaire Elon Musk called Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly "a traitor" for visiting Ukraine amid the country's ongoing war with Russia, Kelly perfectly shamed him for the attack.
Kelly, a former U.S. Navy combat pilot and astronaut, made his third visit to Ukraine since 2023, where he visited a military hospital and met with Red Cross staff. During his visit, he spoke with wounded service members and spent time with pilots who have flown combat missions defending against Russian air attacks.
His visit came in the wake of a contentious White House meeting last month between President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Vice President J.D. Vance. The meeting turned heated when Vance berated Zelenskyy, leading the Ukrainian president to leave without signing an agreement for U.S. security guarantees in exchange for access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals.
Shortly after returning from his trip, Kelly wrote the following message on X:
"Just left Ukraine. What I saw proved to me we can’t give up on the Ukrainian people. Everyone wants this war to end, but any agreement has to protect Ukraine’s security and can’t be a giveaway to Putin."
Kelly also used his post as an opportunity to share details about his trip to the military hospital, stressing the impact the U.S.' decision to cut military aid has had on Ukrainian troops defending the country from Russian President Vladimir Putin's advances.
You can see his post below.
In a bizarre escalation of what was a pretty standard post from a sitting elected official, Musk responded to Kelly's post by calling him "a traitor."
Kelly responded with the following message shortly afterward, shutting Musk down completely:
"Traitor? Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do."
You can see his post below.
Others also called Musk out, coming to Kelly's defense.
Kelly later told reporters that Musk is “not a serious guy” and that he “should go back to building rockets.” He also criticized Musk for leading the (non-department) Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Kelly noted has "slashed and burned the federal government to make room for a giant tax cut for billionaires like himself."
Pointing to his own record of military service, Kelly said it "appears to me the oath that Elon Musk stands by is the oath of billionaires, to make their lives easier, not the American people, not veterans.”
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