You know that Elon Musk is sitting next to Donald Trump every night at Mar-a-Lago, talking to foreign leaders, kibitzing with fellow billionaires and whispering in the ear of the soon-to-be most powerful man on earth. You may have also heard that he’s exercising his own power on the internet to influence congressional leaders and fight for dominance over MAGA.
He’s branching out. He wrote an op-ed in a conservative German newspaper endorsing the neo-Nazi right party, saying they are Germany’s only hope (and causing the editorial editor to resign from the paper.) And now there’s this:
In the first three days of 2025, Elon Musk commandeered global politics through dozens of rapid-fire,often inflammatory posts to his 210 million followers on X.
The world’s richest person called for the release of a jailed British far-right extremist. He shared a post pressing King Charles III to dissolve Parliament and order a new general election, as he posted memes and a flurry of attacks directed at Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Musk accused Starmer of failing to prosecute “rape gangs” more than a decade ago, achild exploitation scandal that has prompted Britain’s Conservative Party to call for a full national inquiry.
Musk reposted a message from Rupert Lowe, a politician in the Reform UK party who serves in Parliament and who said he spent Friday talking to rape gang victims.
“Victims, past and present, don’t need ‘thoughts and prayers’ from politicians, they need justice,” Lowe said. “We will fight for that in Parliament.”
Musk also briefly turned his attention to the United States’ northern neighbor and praised an interview with Pierre Poilievre, a populist firebrand who leads Canada’s Conservative Party. Musk said that next week he would live-stream a conversation with Alice Weidel, the chancellor candidate for the Alternative for Germany, a far-right political party he has endorsed ahead of that country’s snap elections in February.
That rape gang story is from 2014 and has been fully adjudicated. I don’t know if Musk just heard about it or has decided that it’s a good way to rile up the wingnuts against immigrants again to obtain political power but he’s clearly making a move on UK politics.
Interestingly, he’s already stirred up a hornets nest inside the anti-immigrant far-right Reform party there, turning on its leader Nigel Farage. He posted today, “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
Farage has been a huge Trump supporter and recently has been cultivating Musk who was reportedly planning to help finance the party. But even Farage can’t stomach supporting Tommy Robinson, a grifter extremist who was jailed for contempt of court:
But things took a turn after Musk called for the release of Tommy Robinson, a jailed far-right anti-immigration activist. Speaking at a Reform UK event earlier this week, Farage said Robinson was “not what we need,” The Telegraph reported.
“There are people in Britain who think that Robinson is a political prisoner. That’s the narrative that he’s pushed out. That’s how he earns his living but it isn’t quite true,” he said.
On Sunday, Farage responded to Musk, calling the billionaire a “remarkable individual” but saying that he disagreed with his view on Robinson.
“Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree,” he wrote. “My view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles.”
Robinson is a disgusting figure who openly calls for violence against immigrants. Naturally Musk is a fan.
Why is he doing this? I suspect it’s largely because he can. He’s a megalomaniac, obviously, who believes that as the richest man in the world he has a right to run it. But it’s also because he knows that this level of influence makes his businesses downright impermeable from regulation and government interference and will make him even richer.
He’s also a monumental kook:
Yes, that’s a real tweet. God help us.