The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has publicly addressed the conspiracy to assassinate him and destroy his electric vehicle company, Tesla.

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A close aide of US President Donald Trump, the Tesla CEO has recently faced growing controversy for his role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been tasked to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy.

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Musk claims people ‘want to kill’ him

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Speaking to Sean Hannity of Fox News, Musk revealed that the reason why certain people “want to kill” him is the attempts made by him to cut government waste and fraud.

“It turns out when you take away people's, you know, the money that they're receiving fraudulently, they get very upset,” the billionaire said.

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

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Musk reiterated the claims made by conservative lawmakers, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, suggesting that left-wing groups may be behind the protests and attacks on Tesla cars and dealerships.

“I think there are larger forces at work as well,” he said. “I mean, who’s funding and who’s coordinating it? Because this is crazy. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Tesla is a peaceful company, we’ve never done anything harmful. I’ve never done anything harmful, I’ve only done productive things, so I think we just have a deranged... I think there’s some kind of mental illness going on here,” he added.

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Protest at Tesla showroom

Various demonstrations have been staged at Tesla properties across the country, while some Tesla owner’s cars have also been vandalised.

In a recent incident, an arsonist attacked five Tesla vehicles at a dealership in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Tuesday morning (Mar 19).

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Last week, around 250 protestors gathered outside a Tesla showroom in New York City, holding anti-Musk signs and shouting, “Elon Musk is not elected! Democracy must be protected!”. The placards read ‘Block Fascism Now’ and ‘Musk Must Go’.

Trump has backed Musk, saying the demonstrators are “harming a great American company.”

“Let me tell you, you do it to Tesla, and you do it to any company, we’re going to catch you, and... you’re going to go through hell.”

(With inputs from agencies)