Last month he stood before the SpaceX staff in Boca Chica and outlined how he still believes that he will get 1 million people on Mars by the 2050s. U til they can start producing 100’s of Starships, this is not even remotely realistic. Sending thousands of people to Mars in the next 5 years is not a serious or realistic idea.
I mean, what those 1 million people would be even doing there? What would be their purpose there? Definitely not resources, because getting anything from Mars would not be economical.
I do understand to have an international base of few dozens to few hundred scientists on Mars who will be studying it 24/7. But that's about it.
