“Too Far”: Lawrence O’Donnell Unloads on Elon Musk in Scathing MSNBC Monologue

By the end of his segment, there was no ambiguity. Elon Musk, in Lawrence O’Donnell’s eyes, had crossed the point of no return—again. But this time, the apology he chose to make said more than the ones he didn’t.

At exactly 3:04 AM, Elon Musk tweeted something that would ripple far beyond Twitter’s algorithmic echo chamber. “I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far.” It was short, subdued, and unlike Musk. For the world’s loudest billionaire, known for lobbing insults at politicians, regulators, cave rescuers, and anyone who dares question him, it felt almost… tame.

But to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, the tweet was deafening.

Because for a man who’s spent months ignoring mounting criticism, including accusations that his decisions directly contributed to humanitarian disaster, Musk had finally expressed remorse—not for the hungry, not for the dead—but for offending Donald Trump.

“They didn’t even get food.”

O’Donnell’s monologue Wednesday night was nothing short of a televised indictment. With his signature surgical precision, he laid out a grim list of consequences allegedly stemming from Musk’s brief, controversial tenure in government. The most damning? Musk’s order to halt food and medical aid shipments to famine-stricken regions like Sudan, delivered through USAID and other humanitarian partners.

“He took food away from starving children,” O’Donnell said. “And now it’s rotting in warehouses around the world.”

The MSNBC host accused Musk of effectively causing the deaths of up to 300,000 people by interrupting life-saving international relief efforts. Whether directly or indirectly, O’Donnell argued, the consequences were real, measurable, and irreversible. And yet, when Musk finally chose to issue a public apology, it wasn’t for any of that.

“The only person he regrets harming,” O’Donnell said, “is Donald Trump.”

The Apology That Broke the Narrative

There’s no shortage of controversies surrounding Elon Musk. From his erratic tweets to his questionable management of Twitter (now X), to legal battles and SEC violations, Musk is no stranger to bad press. But O’Donnell’s segment wasn’t about headlines. It was about character.

“Elon Musk doesn’t regret the 300,000 people,” O’Donnell said, referencing humanitarian experts who claim that halting food and medicine shipments in Africa led to catastrophic consequences. “He doesn’t regret invading the Social Security database. He doesn’t regret anything—except one thing: tweeting too harshly about Donald Trump.”

The tweet Musk was referring to allegedly implicated Trump in files related to Jeffrey Epstein—an explosive and deeply controversial suggestion. Musk later deleted the post and, according to reports, personally apologized to Trump over the phone before issuing his public tweet of regret.

O’Donnell’s conclusion? The apology wasn’t about truth or remorse—it was about survival.

A Pattern of “Joking Lies”

This isn’t Musk’s first brush with outrageous accusations. O’Donnell reminded viewers of Musk’s infamous 2018 attack on British cave diver Vernon Unsworth, whom Musk called “pedo guy” on Twitter. That slur led to a defamation lawsuit, where Musk’s defense was that the statement was “a joke.”

He won the case, but the pattern, according to O’Donnell, was set.

“Elon Musk leaves us to wonder,” O’Donnell said, “has he now admitted to being a pathological liar who throws around pedophilia accusations as part of his pathology?”

The throughline O’Donnell traced was chilling: Musk’s willingness to lie, provoke, or defame whenever it serves his immediate interest—and his ability to walk it back with half-hearted apologies only when legally or politically convenient.

Bill Gates, Trump, and the Poorest Children in the World

O’Donnell didn’t pull punches when it came to juxtaposing Musk with Bill Gates. The former Microsoft CEO, known for his philanthropic work in Africa, has focused much of his post-tech career on eradicating diseases like malaria and expanding access to clean water.

Meanwhile, Musk’s actions, according to O’Donnell, amounted to the opposite.

“Bill Gates said Elon Musk is the richest man in the world… killing the world’s poorest children,” O’Donnell emphasized, before noting that Musk has neither denied the accusation nor sued Gates for defamation.

“He never tweeted, ‘I regret killing the poorest children in the world.’ He never said, ‘That went too far.’”

To O’Donnell, that silence spoke volumes.

“Twitter is where the truth lives.”

One of the most jarring moments came when O’Donnell highlighted Musk’s tweet endorsing Trump’s media narrative about civil unrest in Los Angeles. Musk retweeted a post claiming Twitter was “where the truth lives,” and that without it, Americans wouldn’t know the “truth” about riots in LA.

But according to O’Donnell, this too was a lie. He spent nearly two minutes dismantling the idea of LA being in chaos, citing that more than 99% of the city remained peaceful, and the only incident involved a single burning car downtown—on a weekend, in a quiet commercial area.

“A fire is not a riot,” he said. “We’ve seen worse after Super Bowl parades.”

The implication? Musk was using his platform not to inform, but to mislead—and once again, to serve Trump’s narrative.

A Billionaire’s Loyalty Shift

Perhaps the most damning conclusion from O’Donnell was not just about Musk’s actions, but his motivations. The MSNBC host alleged that Musk’s loyalty has shifted firmly toward Trump, not for ideological alignment, but self-preservation.

He pointed out that California liberals made Musk rich—by buying Teslas long before they were fashionable. But now, Musk has “bent the knee” to Trump, even crediting himself in a now-deleted tweet with having “helped elect” the former president by financing his rise.

“The richest man in the world now serves the man who promised to deport 15 million people,” O’Donnell said. “And that deportation plan? It’s failing.”

The Takeaway: What Musk Regrets—and What He Doesn’t

In the end, O’Donnell offered viewers a stark choice:

“Either Elon Musk is a pathological liar, willing to fabricate anything—even pedophilia accusations—for attention. Or he knows something explosive about Donald Trump and Epstein, and he’s now actively covering it up.”

Either way, O’Donnell concluded, “his statements can no longer be trusted.”

Final Thoughts

What makes Musk’s apology so controversial isn’t just what he said—it’s what he left out.

He didn’t apologize for food shipments rotting in Sudan.
He didn’t express remorse for AIDS patients left without medicine.
He didn’t deny Bill Gates’ claim that his decision-making contributed to mass death.
He didn’t even explain what he meant by “some posts went too far.”

He just said sorry—to Donald Trump.

In a political landscape filled with deflection and damage control, Lawrence O’Donnell’s searing monologue didn’t just expose the moment Musk blinked—it made one thing crystal clear:

Sometimes, what you choose to regret says more about you than what you did in the first place.