Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest human being, has enormous resources at his disposal to provide relief for those struggling around the world. So when Musk saw the good people of Los Angeles enduring wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 24 people, he jumped into action. Well, he did the billionaire oligarch’s version of jumping into action.
Musk sent eight Cybertrucks with some Red Vines, bottled water, and oranges to local police stations. The Cybertrucks included Starlink internet to provide some service to people in the immediate area. And the billionaire shared a video on X about how he supposedly saved “thousands of lives” from the wildfires. Seriously.
“Apologies to those expecting Cybertruck deliveries in California over the next few days,” Musk tweeted Sunday. “We need to use those trucks as mobile base stations to provide power to Starlink Internet terminals in areas of LA without connectivity. A new truck will be delivered end of week.”
Tesla provided an inventory of the Cybertrucks on X, with three at sheriff’s departments in Altadena, two in Pasadena, and three in Zuma Beach and Malibu. Those Cybertrucks may not be very helpful to the broader population as they contain just a handful of groceries sitting in police station parking lots. But Tesla is also providing power at some locations through its portable Megapack energy storage system.
Musk retweeted people who praised his amazing generosity over the weekend, including an account called @DesireeAmerica4, which claimed Musk had “stepped up big time” by providing some Starlink internet. “Say what you want about the guy, but who else is making moves like this when it counts?” the account asked.
The video itself even says Musk “saved thousands of lives” through his actions, in a video that appears to include an AI-generated voiceover with b-roll of Musk making poses in front of burning buildings. It’s pretty gross to watch, obviously, even if it wasn’t about a tragedy where dozens have been killed.
The threat hasn’t even passed, as the winds have picked up again and the Palisades fire has just 14% containment with 23,713 acres burned, according to Watch Duty. The Eaton Fire is burning at 14,117 acres at just 33% containment.
Elon Musk stepped up big time, donating Starlink to help Los Angeles firefighters and people stay connected during the chaos. Say what you want about the guy, but who else is making moves like this when it counts? pic.twitter.com/TlKozxKVjs
— Desiree (@DesireeAmerica4) January 12, 2025
“Elon Musk made an astonishing decision after the wildfires in Los Angeles,” the video’s likely robotic narrator said.
“Saving thousands of lives the traditional communication towers in Los Angeles were already reduced to ashes in the fire, and the disaster zone lost all signal,” the narrator continued nonsensically. “Yet people could still watch live coverage of the fire. This was all because at this critical moment, Musk generously donated Starlink terminals to Los Angeles, restoring communication.”
The video has been seen by over 1.5 million people at the time of this writing, presumably thanks to Musk retweeting it. It’s not entirely clear who “Desiree” is, though the account has a blue checkmark that anyone can buy for $8.
Musk, who is currently worth $412 billion according to Forbes, has long touted his own charitable giving in times of crisis while actually contributing very little. The most infamous time was perhaps when a kids’ soccer team got stuck in a Thai cave during the summer of 2018. That event gained international attention, so Musk naturally wanted some of that attention for himself, showing up in Thailand with his own “mini-sub” design to rescue the kids. Unsurprisingly, critics called Musk’s presence a publicity stunt.
When one expert criticized the mini-sub as unworkable, Musk called the guy a “pedo” and even hired a private investigator to ruin his reputation. That man sued for defamation but lost after Musk insisted he didn’t mean “pedo” in the literal sense.
Whenever people point out that Musk isn’t actually contributing much to these rescue efforts and is instead using them for his own publicity purposes, the billionaire’s defenders will inevitably ask “what are you doing to help?” as they fail to understand how anything works. Musk is getting tremendous benefits from these relatively cheap stunts. And while it’s nice that Musk gave some cops a few groceries and internet access, it’s a pretty pathetic effort in the grand scheme of things.
Take, for instance, a headline from WGN9 on Monday: “Elon Musk donates Cybertrucks to provide LA community with power, Internet amidst wildfire devastation.” If the average person on the street temporarily moved their car to a parking lot for a few days to give some limited internet access and a few bananas, would anyone characterize that as “donating” a car? Of course not. But Musk gets that kind of generous coverage, even though he’s going to take those Cybertrucks and sell them to whatever dude with a midlife crisis comes along next.
Musk knows how to work the media ecosystem, no matter how much he whines about mainstream media being biased against him. And the billionaire is about to use that knowledge to his advantage and newly frightening ways as a top advisor to the incoming Trump administration. The New York Times had new reporting over the weekend about how DOGE, his slash-and-burn commission is likely to be used when Trump takes power on Jan. 20. And it sounds like it’s going to be clusterfuck of phenomenal proportions as unqualified dullards try to make decisions about how public money is spent while almost certainly enriching themselves.
Musk has been critical of the fire management strategy in California, even traveling to the state over the weekend to livestream with a member of the L.A. fire command team to find some kind of deficiency he could hang on local leaders. Musk was very transparently trying to get an answer that confirmed his biases about why fire hydrants were running dry, a very real problem firefighters have encountered.
“Was water available? I understand that wasn’t an issue in Malibu, is that correct?” Musk said during the livestream.
“There was water, we have water reservoirs,” the unidentified firefighter responded.
The firefighter went on to explain that the water reserves are simply being stretched thin by the historic fires. And there isn’t much you can do to produce enough water when tens of thousands of acres are burning under such horrifically dry and windy conditions.
“The amount of water we’re flowing, there really is no water system that’s gonna keep that pace. So we have to bring in water tenders, which are these big water tanks, you know, 2,500 to 3,000-gallon trucks, and they’ll come in, and that’s what we have to do to compensate,” the firefighter continued.
Musk wasn’t content with the response, stammering, “my understanding is that like, along the… correct me if I’m wrong, along the… in Malibu along the coast there was no shortage of water. In the Palisades there was a shortage of water at a certain point. Or is that not accurate?”
The firefighter calmly explained “we were flowing an amount of water that the system couldn’t take. It was overbearing, just because how much water these firefighters were utilizing.”
“Alright,” Musk said, sounding defeated, “sounds good.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom shared a video clip from Musk’s encounter on Sunday, saying the billionaire had been “exposed by firefighters for his own lies.”
.@ElonMusk exposed by firefighters for his own lies. pic.twitter.com/3Q8xFZaQ3S
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 13, 2025
No, Musk didn’t save thousands of lives as the wildfires in L.A. continue to rage. But he will no doubt continue to spread misinformation that seeks to serve the MAGA agenda. And that will almost certainly get much worse after Jan. 20.