When Jane Goodall Wanted To Send Trump, Musk, Putin Off Earth

In what was her last interview, English primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall said that she would send certain high-profile figures, including Donald Trump and Elon Musk, on a one-way journey into space.

In the Netflix documentary, Famous Last Words, released shortly after her death on October 1 at the age of 91, Goodall said, "There are people I don't like, and I would like to put them on one of Musk's spaceships and send them all off to the planet he's sure he's going to discover."

When the interviewer asked if Musk would be on the list, she said, "Oh, absolutely. He'd be the host," adding, "Along with Musk would be Trump and some of Trump's real supporters."

She did not stop there, extending the hypothetical voyage to other world leaders, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "I would put Putin in there, and I would put President Xi. I'd certainly put Netanyahu in there and his far-right government. Put them all on that spaceship and send them off."

Goodall also reflected on her expertise in primate behaviour. She said there are two kinds of alpha individuals. Some rely on aggression and physical strength, but their dominance is often short-lived. Others use intelligence and strategy, such as only challenging a higher-ranking member when supported by an ally, and these alphas tend to maintain their position for much longer.

Famous Last Words was greenlit by Netflix in 2024, featuring interviews with cultural icons whose final thoughts would air posthumously, according to Variety. Goodall's reflections are the first to be released.

Goodall's Earlier Criticisms Of Trump

This was not the first time Goodall criticised Trump. She had earlier likened his behaviour to the dominance displays of male chimpanzees. Before the 2016 presidential election, she told The Atlantic, "In many ways the performances of Donald Trump remind me of male chimpanzees and their dominance rituals." To climb the social hierarchy, she explained, male chimps perform attention-grabbing displays "stamping, slapping the ground, dragging branches, throwing rocks." These tactics, she said, could help some rise quickly and maintain influence.

She reiterated the comparison in a 2022 MSNBC interview, saying Trump "exhibited the same sort of behaviour as a male chimpanzee will show when he's competing for dominance with another." She added, "They're upright, they swagger, they project themselves as really more large and aggressive than they may actually be in order to intimidate their rivals."