Elon Musk has officially left DOGE but that hasn’t stopped those on the left and their fellow travelers from trying to attack him.

Arguably, one of the most contemptible criticisms came from David Brooks, a columnist for the NY Times and a contributor to PBS News Hour. Keep this in mind when you’re told that PBS offers completely unbiased news coverage.

🚨NYT/PBS “conservative” David Brooks likens Elon Musk to Pol Pot, Mao and Stalin:

Brooks stated, “At least semi-responsible for the deaths of probably by the end of this, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. That’s Elon Musk’s legacy.”

“The people who work at Tesla and SpaceX… pic.twitter.com/Eo22DYMZVF

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) June 1, 2025

Brooks said there are “folks at Boston University who count.”

“How many people have died because of what DOGE did at USAID?” Brooks asked. 

He acknowledged it was “poorly managed,” which might be an understatement. He then suggested that 300,000 people had died because of reductions and noted that we’re “four months in.” He explained that projecting these numbers over four years, the “death toll becomes exceedingly high.”

He said there were “mass murderers in the world like Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, and Stalin. 

“We don’t have any on the list for America, and I don’t think it’s the same as committing the kind of genocide they did. But by taking away that agency and at least semi-responsible for the deaths of probably by the end of this of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, that’s Elon Musk’s legacy. And the people at Tesla and Space X may want to think about that.” 

Wow, Brooks is disgraceful. Not only did he compare Musk to mass murderers, but he was pointedly trying to influence Tesla and SpaceX with this disgusting call to take action against Musk. 

Then let’s talk about that number he’s throwing out there that he calls a “count” — that’s based on a projection, a model by Boston University researcher Brooke Nichols, not a count of actual numbers of dead. 

“The biggest uncertainties in all of these estimates are: 1) the extent to which countries and organizations have pivoted to mitigate this disaster (likely highly variable), and 2) which programs are actually still funded with funding actually flowing — and which aren’t,” Nichols said.

So they did this without knowing which programs are still funded or what other responses there are to the situation that might change projections? Translation: then what is this worth?

Sorry, but I’m not buying it. To try to spin that into “Pol Pot” is disgraceful on the part of David Brooks. And he’s the guy they sometimes refer to as the “conservative” – which is kind of like referring to Jen Rubin as a conservative. 

This number is now being spread everywhere by the left, without questioning. Even U2’s Bono was spreading it during an appearance with Joe Rogan, although he acknowledged it was “not proven.” So if it’s not proven, why are you even talking about it? We can stop in the first six seconds of this clip. 

We have our new Russia collision hoax!

Listen to this clown, Bono claiming that 300,000 people have already died because President Trump closed down the USAID ponzi scheme 😂 pic.twitter.com/Y3s0c8b7Cu

— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) June 1, 2025

Joe Rogan responded that USAID was a money laundering operation. 

He’s such a liar/idiot 🤦‍♂️

Zero people have died!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 31, 2025

This comes even as DOGE is sending its USAID cuts to Congress to be codified.