Elon Musk is once again publicly criticizing MacKenzie Scott's philanthropy.
Tesla and SpaceX's trillionaire CEO has reposted or commented approvingly on at least eight posts on X criticizing Scott's giving in the past four days.
For example, Musk shared one user's post saying that Scott, who divorced from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019, has "burned through 26 billion dollars of her ex-husband's money and accomplished absolutely nothing of note."
Scott's Yield Giving website says her team has disbursed more than 2,700 gifts totaling over $26 billion, including more than $7 billion last year.
The philanthropic organization has supported more than 2,000 non-profits, ranging from Meals on Wheels and Habitat for Humanity to Ghetto Film School and the Florida Immigrant Coalition.
Scott has pioneered a form of trust-based philanthropy where she distributes her wealth quickly, directly, and with no strings attached.
"Unfortunately, she's spending it on making the world a worse place," another X user posted about Scott's giving. "Sadly, yes," Musk replied.
In response to a third user's post suggesting Bezos disapproves of his ex-wife giving billions of dollars to progressive non-profits, Musk responded with emojis suggesting he agreed and found it funny.
Musk's comments about Scott come amid a fresh wave of criticism of his short-lived Department of Government Efficiency for championing cuts to USAID early last year.
The world's richest man defended the suspension of USAID programs and staff layoffs as an effort to clamp down on waste, fraud, and abuse.
But others, including Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, warned at the time that disrupting foreign aid could result in preventable deaths and unnecessary hardship overseas.
In addition to targeting Scott, Musk has been railing against New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof after he posted a list on X on Sunday of people who, he said, "died because of Musk's aid cuts."
Some of Musk's followers shared an oft-cited argument that less US taxpayer money should be spent on foreign aid and diverted to domestic issues instead.
Musk has previously described the speed and scale of Scott's giving to causes such as racial equity, social justice, immigration protection, and LGBTQ+ rights as "concerning."
He also wrote in a now-deleted post in March 2024: "super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse" should be included among the "Reasons that Western Civilization died."
Scott has not publicly engaged with Musk's criticisms. Neither Musk nor Scott immediately responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.
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Theron Mohamed is a London-based correspondent on the Trending team at Business Insider. His coverage spans finance, investing, wealth, markets, and the economy.Theron joined BI in 2019 as a reporter at Markets Insider and rose to the rank of correspondent before moving to the Trending team in 2024. He previously covered tech, media, and telecom stocks for Investors Chronicle magazine and had a brief stint on the Financial Times' Data team. He interned at the Wall Street Journal in New York where he primarily wrote for Heard on the Street.Theron has freelanced for The Independent, The Telegraph, WIRED, and several smaller publications. He holds an undergraduate degree in geography from the London School of Economics, and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.Theron often covers Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, Jeremy Grantham and other top-flight investors. He also writes about the world's wealthiest people and shares financial advice from all manner of rich and successful people.Email Theron at [email protected] and follow him on X @theron_mohamed.Expertise
- Corporate finance
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