Sir Bob Geldof delivered a fiery address at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre on Wednesday evening, branding Elon Musk a “sociopathic loser” and condemning political leaders in the UK and US for what he described as a betrayal of the world’s “most vulnerable”.
The outspoken campaigner appeared on stage following a performance of Just For One Day, the musical inspired by the 1985 Live Aid concerts he co-founded.
The show donates 10 per cent of all proceeds to the Band Aid Charitable Trust and has already raised nearly £900,000 since its sold-out Old Vic run and start of its West End run.
Lauding the cast for their contribution, Sir Bob praised the musical for turning entertainment into impact: “They’ve already built hospitals and schools and stuff like that by doing their job tonight.”
But his tone quickly turned blistering as he criticised Musk over comments the billionaire made during a February podcast, claiming he was combating what he referred to as “civilisational suicidal empathy.”
At the time, the Tesla founder was heading up DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, to drastically shrink the size of government by aiming to cut $1 trillion or more in government spending, ultimately cutting thousands of Federal jobs.
“A couple of weeks ago, that prime w**ker Elon Musk said the great weakness of Western civilisation is empathy,” Sir Bob said in response to Musk’s empathy remark. “The great weakness? You ketamine-crazed fool. You sociopathic loser.
“Empathy is the glue of civilisation. Empathy is the glue of humanity,” he added. “It’s how we do things together, how we sit here together and clap because we actually understand that this is the stuff that works.”
He went on to accuse US officials of misleading the public over the consequences of recent cuts to foreign aid, claiming at least 300,000 people have died as a result.
“The strongest nation in the world, the most powerful man on earth and the richest person ever in the history of the planet decided to declare war on the poorest, the weakest, the most vulnerable people on the planet” he said. “I despise them.”
The 73-year-old then branded Musk, Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and US Secretary of State Mark Rubio ‘liars’.
“When they say they’re sending food to the starving children of Sudan who are being held captive and starved to death, when they say they are helping gang-raped women who are broken and their panicked children, that’s a lie,” he claimed.
“They are not so it’s down to us lot and you lot to get scrape a million quid.”
Closer to home, Geldof didn’t spare the Labour leadership either. He criticised Keir Starmer and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves for cuts to international aid during a period of domestic hardship while also calling Vlamdir Putin a “thug”.
“Times are really tough in this country, we need to get more money - ‘But really? Really? We’re going to stop helping the people you’ve just clapped for to make a few bucks’. We need to be helped, we need to have the NHS, we need to rearm because there’s a thug currently invading our continent, but really? All that intellect, that’s all you can do.”
“Snatch it from those people?” he continued. “No it can’t work like that. It doesn’t have to work like that and it began not working like that in 1985 and we took it all the way 20 years later to Live 8 and that really tipped the balance in favour of those we want to help.
“This is Great Britain, this country can do anything.”
