‘Not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed’

Elon Musk has hit back at Billie Eilish after the singer slammed the world’s richest man last week in an infographic suggesting how the Tesla CEO could use his historically massive wealth to do some charitable good. Borrowing a page from his former DOGE boss Donald Trump’s book of sexist insults targeting women’s intelligence, Musk posted a message responding to Eilish’s graphic, saying, “She’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.”

Eilish’s post came amid news last week that Musk, 54, could soon become the world’s first-ever trillionaire. The 23-year-old “Bury a Friend” singer has had America’s wealth gap on her mind lately, including at WSJ Magazine‘s 2025 Innovator Awards last month, where late night host Stephen Colbert presented her with the honor, noting that she has raised more than $11.5 million for organizations addressing food insecurity and climate change through her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour.

More from Billboard

Eilish then proceeded to lay down the gauntlet for American billionaires — including Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg (net worth $228 billion), who was in the room — suggesting that perhaps they could use some of their cash to help others in need. “I’d say if you have money, it would be great to use it for good things and give it to some people that need it,” Eilish said. “Love you all, but there’s a few people in here that have a lot more money than me. If you are a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but give your money away, shorties.”

But it was what she said last week about Musk that appeared to get under his skin. Eilish posted the series of infographics suggesting the world of good that Elon could do with his money, including spending $40 billion every year to end hunger by 2030 or provide universal safe clean water for the planet for the next seven years with for $140 billion, save all 10,443 critically endangered species by spending $1-$2 billion annually to bring them all down to endangered status, or rebuild war-ravaged Gaza and the occupied West Bank for $53.2 billion.

Eilish doubled-down on her suggestion last Thursday (Nov. 13), specifically slamming Musk in her Instagram Story, calling him a, “f–king pathetic p–sy b–ch coward.” Billie’s remarks came after a shareholder vote paved the way for Musk — already the world’s richest man with a net worth of $465 billion — to rake in $1 trillion in Tesla stock if he delivers on specific performance goals over the next decade.

While Musk reportedly donated nearly $1.9 billion shares of Tesla to unnamed charities in 2022 — as well as $5.7 billion worth of shares in 2021 — a March 2024 New York Times story said that unlike fellow billionaire Bill Gates, who has used his massive wealth to improve health care across Africa, Musk’s philanthropy has “been haphazard and largely self-serving, making him eligible for enormous tax breaks and helping his businesses.” The paper reported that Musk has seeded his charity with tax-deductible donations of more than $7 billion in stock since 2020, noting that the foundation housing the money has “failed in recent years to give away the bare minimum required by law to justify the tax break.”

In addition, according to the Times, the foundation has not hired any staff, with the billions in its coffers overseen by a board consisting of Musk and two volunteers, one of whom devoted the equivalent of six minutes per week working on its charitable works. A Times analysis also found that the Musk Foundation’s giving in 2021 and 2022, the latest years for which the full data was available at the time, about half of the donations had some link to Musk, one of his employees or one of his businesses.

At press time a spokesperson for Eilish had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on Musk’s post.

Check out Musk’s post below.