Elon Musk made it clear there’s nothing romantic about his fondness for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after praising her beauty during a posh political gala in New York on Monday night.

Musk gave Meloni a very warm introduction as she was honored by the Atlantic Council think tank with its Global Citizens Award earlier this week.

In his remarks, he called the head of the right-wing populist party, Fratelli d’Italia, “someone who is even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside” and “authentic.”

“That can’t always be said about politicians,” the tech billionaire said of the prime minister, who campaigned as a staunch defender of “God, fatherland, and family.”

Meloni was equally affable at the event, praising Musk’s “precious genius” when she took the stage.

When people on X, Musk’s social media site, started speculating about starry-eyed photos of the pair, Musk stepped in with a firm denial.

“I was there with my Mom,” he posted to X, formerly Twitter. “There is no romantic relationship whatsoever with PM Meloni.”

Nevertheless, Meloni and Musk do appear to have forged a friendship.

Last year, she invited him to her home in Rome to discuss declining birth rates in the West and the upsides of artificial intelligence. Musk was a guest speaker at a political festival organized by Fratelli d’Italia last December.

While Musk swiftly shut down the romance rumors, he has openly flirted with at least the politics of European far-right leaders.

In one example earlier this week, the Tesla CEO posted approvingly about an interview of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban vilifying immigrants.

“Do we give Brussels the right to decide who can stay in Hungary or do we reject it and defend our sovereignty?” Orban asked in Hungarian, referring to the home of the European Parliament. “The Hungarian people have made it clear: no way!”

In a reply, Musk simply wrote back, “Yes.”