'Kudos to Jeff Bezos': Elon Musk praises arch rival for keeping The Washington Post apolitical

The richest person on earth and X owner Elon Musk, and (right) the third richest person in the world and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Elon Musk has praised arch-rival and The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos after he defended the newspaper’s decision not to endorse a US presidential candidate despite more than 200,000 people cancelling their digital subscriptions following the move.

"Kudos to Bezos," Musk, a critic of the newspaper, wrote on X.

The billionaire founder of Amazon said that the decision blocked an endorsement of Kamala Harris, and many people in messages on the newspaper’s website criticized him. But, in an opinion piece earlier this week, Bezos said "most people believe the media is biased" and The Washington Post and other newspapers needed to boost their credibility.

"Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election," Bezos wrote. "What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one."

The development also comes days after the newspaper published a report claiming that Elon Musk worked illegally in the US during a brief period in the 1990s while building a startup company. In a separate report, it claimed that the billionaire businessman has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It also raised potential national-security concerns, given Putin’s role as one of USA’s chief adversaries.

Musk denied the report on Sunday, saying he was allowed to legally work in the US during that period. "I was on a J-1 visa that transitioned to an H1-B," he said on his social media platform X. The J-1 Exchange Visitor visa lets foreign students get academic training in the US, while the H1-B visa is for temporary employment, Reuters reported.

The X owner has also been supporting Donald Trump in his quest to become the US President for a second time.