Marketing professor and anti-MAGA podcaster Scott Galloway unleashed a blistering attack on Elon Musk during a discussion with former technology journalist Kara Swisher. Galloway branded the billionaire a “traitor to the West” before invoking the Rosenberg espionage case and its deadly conclusion, as reported by Zero Hedge.

The discussion centered on the growing influence of Silicon Valley and the public treatment of billionaire innovators. Galloway argued that American admiration for successful technology figures has created a dangerous double standard that allows them to operate under different expectations.

Galloway began by criticizing what he described as the “idolatry of innovators.” He pointed to the concentration of enormously valuable companies along the West Coast and argued that their leaders credit their own character for success while blaming government for their failures.

He said the problem extended beyond the attitudes of the billionaires themselves. In Galloway’s telling, the broader public has accepted the idea that prominent innovators should be judged differently from everyone else.

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That criticism quickly escalated into a direct accusation against Musk. “Elon Musk is a traitor to the West,” Galloway declared, shifting the conversation from criticism of billionaire culture into far more incendiary territory.

Galloway then compared Musk with aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, whose sympathies toward Nazi Germany before America entered World War II remain controversial. He said Lindbergh believed the United States should partner with Germany and Hitler.

From there, Galloway constructed a hypothetical scenario involving Lindbergh, Boeing, and British bombing missions. He asked what might have happened if Lindbergh had acquired Boeing and controlled guidance systems used for B-17 bombing runs over Germany by the Royal Air Force.

Under Galloway’s scenario, Lindbergh could have throttled back those systems in the middle of 1940, before the United States entered the war. Galloway suggested that such an action could have worsened the blitzkrieg in London and caused additional destruction and civilian deaths.

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He then asked how Lindbergh would have been treated under those circumstances. Galloway used that hypothetical to argue that Musk’s wealth, electric vehicles, and rocket achievements should not place him beyond the standards applied to others.

The tirade took its darkest turn when Galloway invoked Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The American couple were convicted in 1951 of conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union and were executed at New York’s Sing Sing prison two years later.

“We lined up the Rosenbergs against a wall,” Galloway said. Their prosecution remains one of the most controversial espionage cases in American history, particularly because of the severity of their punishment.

Galloway immediately returned to his accusation against Musk. “This is a traitor to the West, and you should be held to the same standards as every other traitor in the West.”

Galloway stopped short of explicitly calling for Musk’s execution. Still, citing two Americans who were put to death while labeling Musk a traitor created a striking and ominous comparison that went well beyond an ordinary argument about Silicon Valley power.

The remarks arrived amid an increasingly hostile climate surrounding Musk, who has faced criticism over his political activities and his role in the Trump administration. The rhetoric also comes as Musk and Tesla connected properties have been targeted by activists and violent offenders.

An international group calling itself The Capytistas is preparing to publish private home addresses belonging to some of America’s wealthiest people, according to a dossier viewed by WIRED. The group claims more than $1.2 million in financial backing and intends to release over 150 residential addresses.

Elon Musk, his brother Kimbal, and members of Tesla’s board of directors are among the group’s initial targets. Its dossier reportedly includes 32 addresses associated with Musk and Tesla leadership, including properties the owners sought to keep outside public attention.

Beginning in January 2025, Tesla dealerships, vehicles, and charging stations became targets of arson, firebombings, gunfire, and vandalism around the country. In March 2025, Pam Bondi, who was then attorney general, announced federal charges against three suspects accused of attacking Tesla properties with Molotov cocktails.

Bondi described that violence as domestic terrorism. Against that backdrop, Galloway’s argument began with complaints about billionaire privilege and ended with Musk being labeled a traitor, alongside a reference to two convicted spies who were executed.

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