Ben Stiller has always been politely outspoken with his views, far from neutral but worlds away from a Rachel Zegler-style “F**k Trump.” This has gotten him in the proverbial crosshairs of Elon Musk in recent months, along with Musk and Trump’s fans. Back in November 2024, Musk called him a “r*tard” for voting for Kamala Harris, in a reference to Stiller’s 2008 film, Tropic Thunder. More recently, he reposted misinformation alleging that Stiller was paid by USAID for a humanitarian trip to Ukraine. All of this was brought up during Stiller’s recent interview with Tim Miller for The Bulwark, and it led to some hilarious dream-casting for a Tropic Thunder sequel.
“I’m obligated to bring up the fact that the Shadow President, Elon Musk, did tweet that you “went full r*tard above a pick of you with your endorsement of Kamala Harris,” explained host Tim Miller. “I guess it was a quote of Tropic Thunder. That’s got to be kind of surreal, like, ‘This is where we’re at?’ I see this guy tweeting the R-slur at you, and also, I guess, taking over offices in the West Wing?”
“Well, that part of it [is surreal,” responded Stiller. “I mean, with whatever he’s tweeting, you know, I would think he might have better things to do with his time, or, like, with his rocket ships or whatever it is. Like, the guy’s got to be busy. But I think what’s more disturbing is, yeah, how close he is to the President, and how involved he is in making decisions about people’s jobs and our government, when he has no position there.”
“Has he ever called you?” asked Miller.
“He has not.”
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“I’m just spitballing right now,” said , “but if you offer him, like, a spot in Tropic Thunder 2, we might be able to get out of some of this stuff.”
“Maybe he wants to finance it,” added Stiller. “Drop in the bucket. Can we have two or $300 million?”
“He’s financing, you give him a bit role —”
“I’m not gonna say Simple Jack,” interjected Stiller.
“— and you just say, ‘In exchange for that, can we get, like, USAID back?’ I think that seems like as good an idea as any. These guys love attention.” Stiller responded by saying:
I would be happy to keep him busy doing that, so he’s not doing the other stuff he’s going to be doing the next four years.
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“I don’t understand how we got here,” added Stiller in a more serious vein. “But I think also, the whole thing that’s going on now with the super rich people in the world who are all behind him has been really concerning, obviously. And I think it’s not really that surprising. I guess it’s human nature, and it’s greed, and it’s power, and it’s all the things that human beings do and have done throughout history. But, you know, it’s happening. There’s no revelation there.”
Elon Musk Reposted USAID Lies About Ben Stiller on Twitter (Currently Known as X)
Universal Pictures
Actor Ben Stiller, USAID, and Elon Musk have digitally danced before. Musk (along with Donald Trump Jr. and convicted liar Sidney Powell) reposted a video (falsely representing itself as E! News and misspelling a variety of names and words) from Feb. 5, 2025, claiming that USAID paid a variety of actors to visit Ukraine as an act of propaganda. Ben Stiller was alleged to have been paid $4 million for his visit (alongside other actors, such as Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Orlando Bloom).
It was a baseless claim from a fabricated video which even has community notes on Musk’s own platform, and Stiller denied it on Twitter (currently known as X), writing: “Totally false. Untrue. These are lies coming from Russian media. I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no personal payments.” Ben Stiller was in fact a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. UNHCR confirmed that he was never paid to visit Ukraine in a statement from the UN Refugee Agency:
“In response to media enquiries, we confirm that Goodwill Ambassador Ben Stiller is not compensated for his work with UNHCR and self-funds his travel. Ben has been supporting UNHCR since 2016 and has been a Goodwill Ambassador since 2018. We are grateful for Ben’s longstanding support to refugees and forcibly displaced people.”
Ben Stiller’s massive hit Severance is currently airing its second season on Apple TV+. According to The Independent and others, Elon Musk is currently dismantling the FAA for personal profit.
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