Elon Musk’s maternal grandfather, Joshua Norman Haldeman (1902–1974) was a chiropractor, bush pilot, and adventurer, but also deeply immersed in conspiracy politics.
Key points from the historical record:
1. Technocracy Leader (1930s–40s, Canada)
Prominent in Technocracy Inc., which wanted to replace democracy with rule by engineers & scientists in a continental “Technate.” The group was banned in Canada during WWII as potentially subversive.
2. Conspiracy Theories
Promoted the “International Conspiracy” often coded or explicit references to Jewish bankers, intellectuals, and globalists controlling banks, media, wars, and health policy. Defended The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as “rapidly unfolding.”
3. Move to Apartheid South Africa (1950)
Relocated the family to Pretoria shortly after apartheid was formalized. Publicly praised the National Party’s handling of the “native question,” called Black South Africans “very primitive,” and later wrote a book framing South Africa as a bulwark of “White Christian Civilization” against communism and the global conspiracy.
Later writings (his 1960 self-published book The International Conspiracy to Establish a World Dictatorship and the Menace to South Africa) continued framing global events as driven by Jewish bankers and intellectuals (naming Rothschilds, Warburgs, etc.) as part of a broader “Invisible Government” controlling communism, media, and anti-apartheid forces. He even claimed Hitler had been installed as German Führer by “money … supplied by international financiers, many, but not all of them, Jewish.”
He also opposed fluoridation, vaccination, and socialized medicine as tools of control.
Haldeman died in a 1974 plane crash. His adventurous side (rodeos, Kalahari expeditions, family flights across Africa) is often highlighted, but the political writings are extensively documented in newspapers, letters, and his own publications.
Elon has spoken positively about his grandfather.
Sources: Archival records, contemporary news, The Atlantic, CBC reporting, and Haldeman’s own writings.
The world’s first trillionaire.
It’s probably just a coincidence.