ISTANBUL

Billionaire Elon Musk claimed on Tuesday, “They basically want to kill me, I guess they are bad people,” amid growing controversy over his team’s US government reform work, which Musk said is meant to cut costs but his critics say is reckless destruction with no idea of how government works.

The efforts by Musk, the biggest campaign donor to US President Donald Trump and head of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency team, have sparked opposition from Democrats, labor unions, advocacy groups, and many ordinary Americans, with polls showing Musk as largely unpopular.

"It turns out when you take away the money they're receiving fraudulently, they get very upset," Musk told Fox News.

Musk’s team has alleged government fraud and abuse but offered little evidence. Several times his team has been forced to walk back fraud claims that were quickly disproven.

"They basically want to kill me because I'm stopping their fraud and they want to hurt Tesla because we're stopping this terrible waste and corruption in the government and I guess they're bad people. Bad people will do bad things," he claimed.

Tesla has faced a wave of attacks at its car dealerships and facilities, driven by dissatisfaction with Musk’s political activities, including his leadership of the efficiency team, which has tried to fire tens of thousands of federal workers en masse, with no individual justification, and eliminate entire government agencies, although under the law only the US Congress has that power.

"It's really come as quite a shock to me, this violence from the left. I thought the Democrats were supposed to be the party of empathy, the party of caring, and yet they're burning down cars, and firing bullets into dealerships,” Musk said.

Telsa has faced such incidents of burning cars in the US as well as Europe, where his alleged election interference has sparked opposition.

Stressing that Tesla is a peaceful company, he added: "We've never done anything harmful, I've never done anything harmful; I've always done productive things. So there's some kind of mental illness thing going on because this doesn't make any sense."

His critics say Musk’s efforts to eliminate government agencies such as USAID, which he called a “criminal organization,” are destroying public health efforts around the world and could cost millions of lives.

Musk said that there are “larger forces” at work, adding: “Who is funding this? Who’s coordinating it? This is crazy, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

The vandalism targeting Tesla has caused significant financial losses, even prompting Trump to buy a new Tesla and tout it in front of the White House as a public show of support for the company.

Trump also said that violence against Tesla dealerships will be labeled “domestic terrorism” and vowed severe consequences for the perpetrators.