LONDON – He is the richest person in the world. He is very active on social media. He will take on a cost-cutting role in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration when he takes office later this month.
And he frequently bashes international governments whose politics he doesn’t like and praises far-right figures.
In recent weeks, technology mogul Elon Musk has used the X social media platform to unleash a barrage of criticism and accusations against politicians in the UK, Germany and Canada.
Although he did not mention Mr. Musk by name, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer answered questions from reporters at a press conference on Monday, saying Mr. Musk and others like him who spread misinformation online have gone too far. . Mr Starmer accused them of “spreading lies” that amounted to “far-right venom”. He said those committing such acts “didn’t care about the victim.”
Musk was appointed by President Trump to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, along with Vivek Ramaswamy. Musk was a major donor to Trump’s presidential campaign. The two spend a lot of time together, including at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.
What did Elon Musk say?
In the UK, Musk is calling for the release of far-right extremist Tommy Robinson. Tommy Robinson was jailed for 18 months in October for repeating defamatory claims about Syrian refugee schoolboys attacking schoolgirls.
“The United States must free the British people from tyranny,” Musk said. He is trying a “rape gang” linked to a series of incidents a decade ago in which a group of mostly Pakistani men went on trial for grooming and abusing dozens of girls in a town in northern England. Mr Starmer has been accused of failing to do so. Some men have received long prison sentences in connection with their crimes. Britain’s previous Conservative government conducted an inquiry to establish how the episode was allowed to occur, but many of the 2022 recommendations have yet to be implemented.
In Germany, Musk said Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right party that openly criticizes Islam, has been accused of downplaying the Holocaust and opposes mass immigration, is the only party that can “save” the country. said. He said Germany was “on the brink of economic and cultural collapse” and that many Germans felt their concerns were “ignored by the establishment”.
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In Canada, Mr. Musk characterized Kamala Harris’ loss to Mr. Trump in the U.S. presidential election as a setback for women’s progress and called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his intention to resign on Monday, an “intolerable idiot.” I called. He railed against government bureaucracy and inefficiency, claiming that Canada’s climate-related carbon tax would lead to “mass hunger and malnutrition,” and spoke out against Trump-inspired populist Canadians. He praised political advocate Pierre Poièvre.
What is Mr. Musk trying to accomplish?
Musk’s supporters say he is doing something that others, especially the media, are not.
Matt Goodwin, a British right-wing political commentator who studies populist political movements, said in an email newsletter on Sunday that he would “stress the truth, ask who is responsible for this grotesque failure and why.” I’m asking why politicians won’t do more.” A grooming incident that occurred in the north of England 10 years ago.
The title of Goodwin’s newsletter was “Elon Musk isn’t the problem. Legacy media is the problem.”
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Musk’s critics say he appears to be doing the same thing he did in the United States when he used his influence to elect Trump: promoting extreme politicians like Robinson and They claim that they seem to be treading into controversial territory that they may not know the details or feel of. photograph. An independent Dam report published in 2022 in the UK found that local police and officials missed numerous opportunities to prevent abuse in grooming incidents dating back to 2005.
“Elon Musk is an American citizen and perhaps he should focus on issues on the other side of the Atlantic,” Starmer’s Labor government’s health secretary, Andrew Gwynne, said in an interview on British radio on Friday.
“If Elon Musk was really paying attention to what was going on in this country, he might have known there was already an investigation going on,” Gwynn said.
Musk appeared to change his mind about Nigel Farage in recent days, saying the right-wing Reform UK leader “doesn’t have what it takes” to lead a party. Mr Farage is a close ally of Mr Trump. Mr Musk appears to be unhappy with Mr Farage, as he does not support Mr Musk’s support for imprisoned far-right activist Mr Robinson.
What will Mr. Musk do next on the world stage?
Musk is scheduled to have a LiveX discussion with Alice Weidel, who is running for chancellor in Germany’s snap election on February 23, and the conversation could take place as early as this week.
Weidel is the leader of the AfD party, which is under surveillance by German authorities on suspicion of being an extremist organization. Its leaders have been accused of xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and aggressive anti-immigration policies. The AfD’s national approval rating is around 20%, second only to the Christian Democratic Union Party’s 30%. The CDU is a centre-right conservative party.
Mr. Musk did something similar to Mr. Trump on the campaign trail last year, when he made a series of dubious and false claims about global warming, immigration and inflation that went largely unrefuted, giving an “X” interview. At a press conference marred by technical glitches, Mr. Trump took no heed of Mr. Musk, who at one point attacked him for an “abuse of the legal system” and condemned the criminal charges and lawsuits against him.
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French President Emmanuel Macron and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gare Stoer also joined the growing chorus of European leaders who appeared perplexed by Musk’s X post.
“Who would have imagined 10 years ago that the owner of one of the world’s largest social networks would be supporting a new international reactionary movement and directly intervening in elections, including in Germany?” President Macron said on Monday. . “I think it’s alarming that someone with enormous access to social media and enormous economic resources would be so directly involved in the internal affairs of another country,” Store said.
Musk did not respond to questions posed on his X platform about the backlash his comments have received from European political figures.
