Pope Leo warned the world is in ‘big trouble’ if Elon Musk becomes the first trillionaire

Pope Leo XIV sounded the alarm over the growing wealth inequality between CEOs and workers—and he singled out Elon Musk’s path to trillionaire status. In one of first formal interviews after being named pontiff last year, Pope Leo said soaring executive paychecks may be putting the world in “big trouble.” This came as a report warned many billionaire signers of Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda French Gates’ The Giving Pledge are behind in their philanthropy promises.

If Pope Leo XIV had a seat on Tesla’s board, Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package would have been dead on arrival.

The 70-year-old pontiff slammed the widening income gap between the working class and the wealthy—specifically calling out the Tesla CEO as an egregious example of executive excess.

“CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving, the last figure I saw, it’s 600 times more than what average workers are receiving,” he told Catholic news site Crux in a September 2025 interview. “The news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world: What does........

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