What is Elon Musk up to? Perhaps only he himself knows. And perhaps even he doesn’t know.
What we do know is that Mr Musk is a successful disruptor. He disrupted the motor industry with Tesla, social media with Twitter (now X), and is also disrupting American politics. But is he now trying to disrupt European politics, too? Here’s a flavour of some of his most recent utterances.
One tweet demands that a British judge “should be removed from the bench in disgrace”. The judge had delivered a jail sentence on a British lawbreaker. Mr Musk did not agree with the sentence.
Then there is: “At this rate, the UK government will pretty soon be executing people for liking a meme!” Presumably it’s a joke. But the death penalty in the UK – even for murder – was abolished decades ago. It is unlikely that anyone will be executed for liking or disliking anything on social media.
Then he commented on an anonymous tweet that reads: “British Man Arrested for Making Meme Offensive to Child Rapists”.
This was followed by Mr Musk backing the idea that the British monarch should “dissolve Parliament” over “grooming gangs”, involved in illegal sexual activity. King Charles is much respected in Britain. But this recommendation from Mr Musk is, to put it politely, somewhat eccentric.
Mr Musk also backed the idea that British MPs hold a vote of “No Confidence” in Prime Minister Keir Starmer. But Mr Starmer became Prime Minister by winning a huge parliamentary landslide for his Labour party last summer. A “No Confidence” idea supported by a foreign billionaire seems unlikely. Nevertheless, he tweeted about “the snivelling cowards who allowed the mass rape of little girls in Britain” and saying they “are still in power … for now”.
Then he directly attacked some UK politicians in terms that I won’t repeat here, concluding that Mr Starmer “is guilty of terrible crimes against the British people”. He also attacked what he called “the legacy media” – he meant newspapers and broadcasters – for lies and falsehoods.
What is striking – and a bit sad – is that if some lonely figure standing at a street corner in London shouted out comments like these, most pedestrians would cross the street to avoid the disruption. Readers can make their own judgments. But these comments echo some of the tropes that appeal to right-wing and far-right activists in the UK and elsewhere.
Despite this, Mr Musk earned a (mild) rebuke from Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage.
Mr Musk suggested that a jailed convicted criminal and far-right activist, a man who calls himself “Tommy Robinson”, was in some way innocent and should be freed. Robinson’s real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon. In April 2005 at Luton Crown Court, Yaxley-Lennon was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault with intent to resist arrest against an off-duty police officer. He also has other convictions for the use of a false passport, mortgage fraud and other matters.
Mr Farage praised Mr Musk for his activities in American politics but made clear that there is no place for Yaxley-Lennon in his Reform UK party. Mr Musk responded: “The Reform party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.” Reform UK, incidentally, is doing well in recent opinion polls.
After reading through the astonishing number of tweets from the world’s richest man about how Britain is supposedly a failing state, I was then distracted by his further comments about German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Mr Scholz is apparently a “fool” in Mr Musk’s eyes.
The Chancellor has plenty of political problems and shrugged off the “fool” comment. Instead, he focused on Mr Musk cosying up to the far-right German party, Alternative fur Deutschland. AfD is so far to the right that France’s opposition leader Marine Le Pen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will have nothing to do with them.
And so, to return to the initial question: what is Mr Musk up to?
There are all kinds of theories, mostly turning on Mr Musk’s personality and public statements. A few months ago, he told an interviewer, Don Lemon, that he had been prescribed ketamine. It’s a drug sometimes used to treat depression. CNN reported that Mr Musk said: “There are times when I have sort of a … negative chemical state in my brain, like depression I guess … and ketamine is helpful for getting one out of the negative frame of mind.”
America’s Drug Enforcement Agency website defines ketamine as follows: “Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects. It distorts perceptions of sight and sound and makes the user feel disconnected and not in control.”
Depression, of course, is a condition demanding support, sympathy and understanding. But to return once more to the question that is interesting political and other leaders from the German Chancellery to Downing Street and presumably the incoming White House team, too: what is Mr Musk up to?
Why does he spend so much time on X? Why interfere in odd ways in the politics of foreign countries?
Perhaps, he sees himself as “disruptor in chief”, disrupting American politics with his support for US president-elect Donald Trump. But a foreign billionaire meddling on the right-wing fringes of European politics may not work out so well.
And now he is also charged by Mr Trump with reinventing the US government. That, presumably, may take up some of his energies.
