Liberal commentator and marketing professor Scott Galloway publicly called for Elon Musk to be executed as a "traitor to the West," and his audience applauded.
A mainstream media figure just casually suggested the state kill the man who reopened X to free speech, and a room full of people cheered. That is where the institutional left is right now: if you dismantle their grip on the public square, they will call you a spy and demand you die.
On his Pivot podcast with Kara Swisher, Galloway compared Musk to the Rosenbergs — the Soviet spies executed in 1953 — and to Charles Lindbergh, the aviator who opposed U.S. entry into World War II.
"We lined up the Rosenbergs against a wall," Galloway said. "This is a traitor to the West, and he should be held to the same standards as every other traitor in the West."
As Hot Air's John Sexton noted, Galloway couldn't even get his history straight: the Rosenbergs were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing, not shot against a wall. But the inaccuracy is the point. Galloway wasn't correcting the record on capital punishment. He was telling an audience that one of the most consequential innovators in American history deserves the death penalty.
The Post Millennial reported that Galloway framed his argument around what he called America's "ridiculous, unhealthy and dangerous idolatry of innovators," insisting government deserves credit for tech companies' success and that figures like Musk "get to live by an entirely different standard."
The alleged betrayal? Musk's decision to reinstate speed limits on Starlink that reportedly interfered with some Ukrainian drone interceptors within their own territory. The Gateway Pundit noted that Musk has done more for Ukraine than virtually any single person on earth — the country's entire defense relies on Starlink communications — and that Starshield, the military version controlled by the Pentagon, was not affected.
Galloway's Lindbergh comparison is revealing in a way he didn't intend. Lindbergh opposed sending Americans into another European war. Musk throttled a civilian communications system being used to fight one. The pattern: question whether American assets should serve foreign conflicts, and the establishment calls you a traitor.
The Post Millennial noted that Musk donated $455 million to Republicans in the midterms and previously oversaw DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. Galloway's execution fantasy landed the same week Democrats swept the midterms — and after Musk posted that "data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now."
Galloway is a marketing professor with a podcast. Musk builds rockets and runs the platform that broke the old gatekeepers' monopoly on speech. One of them wants the other killed by the state. The question isn't whether Galloway is serious — it's how many people in that audience agreed, and what they'll try when they get the power to act on it.
