Joy Behar: Elon Musk is a Pro-Apartheid Enemy of the United States

The View is such a garbage program and today’s episode is a perfect example of why that’s the case. Let’s start with the fact that Whoopi Goldberg introduced a segment on yesterday’s cabinet meeting by selecting a segment in which Elon Musk talked about a mistake DOGE had made cutting funding for Ebola prevention before quickly restoring that funding.

What Whoopi left out, of course, was Musk’s very simple explanation for why DOGE is essential. Here’s what the View’s audience did not get.

Here is Elon Musk explaining the goal of DOGE:

“We simply cannot sustain as a country a two trillion dollar deficit. If this continues, the country will become de facto bankrupt.

It’s not an optional thing. It is an essential thing. That’s the reason I’m here.” pic.twitter.com/zye4TgK6E9

— Kristen Mag (@kristenmag) February 26, 2025

From the misleading to the truly dishonest, the segment was then handed over to Joy Behar who explained that Elon Musk was a “pro-Apartheid” foreigner from South Africa and an enemy of the United States.

“He was pro-Apartheid as I understand it,” Behar said.

“He’s a naturalized citizen now,” Alyssa Farah interjected.

After some crosstalk, Behar continued. “I think this is perfectly wonderful for Trump. He can take a nap and let this foreigner, foreign agent, you know, an enemy of the United States, do his job,” she said.

After a break, Behar came back to point out that she didn’t actually know that Elon Musk was pro-apartheid and to beg him not to sue her.

Behar complains about “getting flack” about accusing Musk of being “pro-apartheid” as a child and begs @ElonMusk not to sue her for defamation:
“I don’t really know for sure if he was. He grew up in that time when [it] was in full blown…He was around at that time. Maybe he was,… pic.twitter.com/qcBVdI1T2J

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 27, 2025

We’ve covered this smear of Musk before when the NY Times raised it back in 2022. Here’s Ed’s summary of the article. Does this sound pro-apartheid to you?

1. Musk left South Africa for Canada at 17.
2. In part, he chose to leave because he didn’t want to serve in the apartheid-enforcing South African military [paragraph 14]
3. His parents belonged to the anti-apartheid Progressive Party, and his father Errol ran and won office on that platform
4. His black schoolmates recall that Musk “spent time with Black friends” [paragraph 9].
5. Praetoria Boys High School had “a socially progressive undercurrent,” where the headmaster, teachers, and students “participated in freedom struggle activities” [paragraph 17].
6. Musk rebuked a fellow student for using an “anti-Black slur,” and got bullied for it [paragraph 27], and later was one of only a handful of white people at the funeral of a black student [paragraph 28].

These are facts that have been available publicly in the nation’s highest profile newspaper for nearly 3 years. So Joy Behar has no excuse for saying Musk was pro-apartheid.

In addition, Behar’s suggestion that Musk “might have been a young guy” significantly understates the fact that he was a teenager who left the country at 17. 

And let’s not forget she topped it off by calling him a “foreign agent” and an “enemy of the United States.” 

Musk clearly loves the United States and has a current deal (pre-existing the last election) with the US military to create a military controlled version of Starlink. The idea that he’s a foreign agent or an enemy of the state is truly deranged.

And despite all of that, Behar praises herself for (barely) correcting the record after being instructed to do so by producers. I would love to see Musk sue the View and Joy Behar in particular but maybe with the correction he doesn’t have a case? Regardless, this show remains a dumpster fire. Here’s the full clip.