Former Rep. Dean Phillps, D-Minn., has suggested that bashing billionaire business magnate Elon Musk will not be a winning political strategy.
“Objecting to his initiative is one thing, but calling @ElonMusk, a US citizen who’s built some of the most innovative companies in world history, a “South African nepo baby”, is a great way to lose even more Democrats,” Phillips noted in a Wednesday post on X.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently used that phrase to refer to Musk, who is spearheading an effort to expose government waste and fraud.
ELON MUSK CONGRATULATES SPACEX, NASA FOR ‘EXCELLENT WORK’ RESCUING STRANDED ASTRONAUTS
Left: U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., holds a rally outside the N.H. Statehouse after handing over his declaration of candidacy form for President to the New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, on Oct. 27, 2023 in Concord, N.H.; Right: White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk walks to the White House after landing in Marine One on the South Lawn with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) on March 9, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Left: Gaelen Morse/Getty Images; Right: Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
“And there’s nothing conservative about an unelected, South African nepo baby firing people at the VA,” he said last week during remarks in Iowa.
He also deployed the phrase while speaking in Wisconsin on Tuesday, according to the New York Times, which also reported that he had called Musk a “dips—.”
ELON MUSK CALLS JIMMY KIMMEL AN ‘UNFUNNY JERK’ AFTER HE APPEARS TO MAKE LIGHT OF TESLA ATTACKS
Walz was then Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate when she sought the presidency last year, but the Democratic duo lost to the Republican ticket headed by political juggernaut, now-President Donald Trump.
“Regardless of one’s opinion of Musk, this is a great strategy for further alienating center right and center left Americans and losing federal elections,” Phillips opined earlier this month when retweeting a post that featured footage of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., calling Musk a “billionaire con man with a lot of money.”
‘SQUAD’ DEM AYANNA PRESSLEY TRASHES ELON MUSK, CALLING HIM A ‘NAZI NEPO BABY’
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., has called Musk a “Nazi nepo baby.”
Phillips mounted a Democratic presidential primary bid in 2023 but ultimately dropped out in 2024.
