Former Vice President Kamala Harris took a swipe at billionaire Elon Musk and likened the Trump administration’s “America First” policy to 1930s-style isolationism, which many historians believe helped escalate World War II.

During remarks at the 2025 Australian Real Estate Conference, held on the Gold Coast, the failed Democratic presidential candidate alluded to an interview Musk did with podcast titan Joe Rogan — in which the world’s richest man warned that the West’s empathy is being weaponized.

“There was someone that is very popular these days, at least in the press, who suggested that it is a sign of weakness of Western civilizations to have empathy,” Harris, 60, said in a sit-down with Aussie real estate behemoth John McGrath.

“Imagine,” she continued. “No, it’s a sign of strength to have some level of curiosity and concern and care about the well-being of others.”

During his March interview with Rogan, the Tesla founder emphasized that “you should care about other people,” but argued, “we’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris took a swipe at Elon Musk.AP
“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk contended. “They’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.”

Harris also appeared to lament President Trump’s foreign policy approach, without mentioning him or any of his top officials by name.

“I do worry, frankly, about what’s happening in the world right now,” the former vice president admitted.

“It’s important that we remember the 1930s,” she went on.

Elon Musk previously warned that the West has “civilizational suicidal empathy.”REUTERS
“It’s important that we remember that history has taught us that isolation does not equal insulation [and] the importance of relationships of trust, of the importance of friendships, integrity, honesty.”

The former vice president refrained from bashing any of Trump’s policies specifically, but the comments broadly took issue with his “America First” approach to foreign affairs.

Despite her crushing defeat last year, Harris had vowed not to be quiet during Trump’s second term in the White House.

Last month, she emerged from weeks of laying low and delivered a stern rebuke of her rival while speaking at Emerge’s 20th anniversary gala in San Francisco.

She lambasted the commander in chief for creating “the greatest manmade economic crisis in modern presidential history” and engaging in a “wholesale abandonment” of American ideals.

Harris is currently thought to be mulling her political future, including whether or not she should vie to be governor of California in 2026, run for the presidency again in 2028, or stay on the sidelines.

“I am unemployed right now,” she joked earlier at the 2025 Australian Real Estate Conference.