There is no doubt that Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet and live-in finest pal of the US president-elect, should be a busy man – even earlier than a Tesla truck exploded on the entrance to the Trump resort in Las Vegas on 1 January.
Musk was up late dad-dancing at Donald Trump’s glitzy New Yr’s Eve get together at Mar-a-Lago. Then there’s the string of main firms he’s concerned in working, together with Tesla, Area X, Starlink, the Boring Firm, Neuralink and OpenAI.
But he nonetheless discovered time to begin the 12 months opining on British politics on X, the social media platform previously generally known as Twitter which he purchased for $44bn in 2022. Every publish sometimes attracts tens of hundreds of thousands of views.
There isn’t a apparent cause for Musk’s current interventions in British affairs. He has made related headline-grabbing pronouncements on German politics, inflicting outrage over the Christmas interval by publicly endorsing the far-right Different für Deutschland get together forward of February’s elections.
Musk is South African born, of English and Dutch heritage. He emigrated to Canada and took Canadian citizenship earlier than turning into a US citizen in 2002. As Trump has identified “Elon” is a natural-born foreigner and so barred by the structure from turning into the precise US president.
The frequency of the billionaire’s outpourings suggests a willpower to make use of his energy and affect to unfold his opinions far and extensive. In current months he has homed in on sizzling political matters in Britain, together with, within the first few days of 2025, the problem of grooming gangs.
Some in Britain are welcoming him in. Musk was the star visitor at then Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Synthetic Intelligence summit in November 2023. Since then, he has turned to the Reform UK get together. Earlier than Christmas, Musk invited Nigel Farage MP and Reform’s billionaire new treasurer, Nick Sweet, to his present lodgings at Mar-a-Largo. The trio had been pictured sitting beneath an outdated, flattering portrait of Trump, though it isn’t clear whether or not they had been granted an viewers with him.
The go to stirred up hypothesis that Musk might make an enormous donation to Reform UK, much like the tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} he spent on Trump’s victorious marketing campaign. The tech large has denied the rumours and there are electoral guidelines in opposition to overseas donations. Whereas Nigel Farage has made mild of a doable Musk windfall, he has made it clear that any authorized funding could be welcome.
In the meantime, the British authorities has declined to tighten the legislation in response to the rumours of Musk cash. Satirically, Musk was fast on the assault throughout the US election when Labour volunteers went to assist the Democrats. He accused Labour’s marketing campaign chief Morgan McSweeney of “violating US criminal statutes against foreign interference in elections”.
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1:54
Can Musk be mates with Trump and China?
Britain’s On-line Security Act of 2023 could also be one cause why the tech entrepreneur is more and more intervening with criticism of the British authorities who he claimed are presiding over “a tyrannical police state”. X, and different platforms, face probably large fines of both £18m or as much as 10% of worldwide income (whichever is bigger), in the event that they host disinformation or misinformation selling racially or religiously aggravated public order offences or the incitement of violence.
Musk’s curiosity within the UK has picked up since Labour’s normal election victory final summer season and the riots after three younger women had been killed at a dance class in Southport. False rumours in regards to the attacker had been promulgated on X, together with by accounts which Musk had unblocked. When Sir Keir Starmer warned large tech firms that whipping up violent dysfunction on-line is “also a crime”, Musk retorted “Insane” on X, claiming later that in Britain “civil war is inevitable”.
Greater than 19 million YouTube listeners tuned into Musk discussing the UK’s “prison overcrowding situation” on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He additionally joined in “What on earth is going on in the UK?” in response to a right-wing American’s exaggerated posts about an official report into Islamist radicalisation within the UK.
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What does Musk stands to realize from Trump?
Regardless of his loud help for longer jail sentences, Musk has posted on X that the authorities ought to “Free Tommy Robinson”, including {that a} banned video by the English Defence League co-founder was “worth watching”. Robinson, whose given title is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is at the moment serving an 18-month sentence for violating a courtroom order by repeating libellous claims – made within the banned video – in opposition to a younger Syrian refugee.
Ms Phillips responded that such an inquiry ought to be a matter for the native council; Musk stated she “should be in prison”. His intervention has compelled the long-standing scandal again on to the agenda. The brand new Conservative Occasion chief Kemi Badenoch adopted up on 2 January by demanding “a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal”.
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Billionaire besties watch SpaceX launch
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Musk and Trump dance to YMCA
In the meantime, Musk’s spats with the Labour authorities proceed. On the finish of final 12 months, he mocked ministers’ hopes of elevated funding within the UK, together with by Tesla, with the blunt assertion on X that: “Very few companies will be willing to invest in the UK with the current administration.” Downing Avenue hit again, insisting Starmer’s authorities was “unashamedly” pro-growth.
To some, notably many younger males, Musk is a folks hero. But in a current UK ballot, 66% of these surveyed, stated that Musk “should not become influential” in British politics, together with simply over half, 51%, of Reform UK supporters. However regardless of this resistance to overseas interference, it’s too late to cease Musk’s forceful contributions into the nationwide debate.
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Self-evidently Elon Musk has an ideal understanding of recent expertise akin to AI which he calls “the most disruptive force in history”. He informed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that “one of the challenges in the future will be how do we find meaning in life” as a result of “there will come a point where no job is needed… AI will do everything.”
As one other difficult 12 months will get beneath means, Musk is ready to garner ever extra affect as Trump’s effectivity tsar. The richest man on the planet is to set to turn into one in every of its greatest political gamers. It stays to be seen if he will probably be too busy with home affairs to proceed his disputes with overseas powers. Maybe his new boss will try to reign him in, for concern of being overshadowed – however within the meantime he’s at the moment making extra headlines right here than any of our homegrown politicians.
