Elon Musk’s Promotion of Far-Right Parties Sparks Outrage in Europe
Elon Musk’s personal foreign policy of promoting far-right parties has sparked outrage among leaders in Europe, handing them a dilemma: how to rebuke the tech titan without angering his new patron, Donald Trump. Musk’s influence is significant, with 211 million followers on X, and he is using his platform to highlight his enormous power as a populist force galvanizing political provocateurs.
Musk’s attacks on elected officials with whom he disagrees have risked coming across as an attempt by a future US government to interfere in the politics of fellow democracies and sovereign nations to destabilize their governments. His moves beg the question of whether he is working at Trump’s direction, acting as a personal ambassador of Trump to everywhere, or advancing his own vision for global affairs.
Trump’s willingness to tolerate Musk’s fierce attacks on allied leaders is a sign that the coming months could be even more rocky for America’s friends than his first term. The apparent sense of freedom that Trump and Musk feel in playing politics abroad is a marker of the self-confidence in MAGA world ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
The resentment provoked by Musk reflects the core ideology of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, which is to go after establishment politicians and promote far-right, outsider populists whose views and temperaments mirror those of the president-elect. Many voters have become resentful of governments they believe have failed to improve their economic situations and to stem immigration.
Musk’s support for radical populism is seen by many leaders as offensive and less an example of free speech than an attempt to stifle freedoms and democracy. His strategy appears to be that opposition forces in these countries are far more in line with Trump’s anti-immigration and anti-free trade instincts than the leaders who are currently in place.
The nationalist DNA of Trump’s foreign policy is often a reaction to policies and demeanor of center-left leaders in the West. This may help explain the president-elect’s tormenting of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is the antithesis of MAGA.
Despite Starmer’s tough tone, the showdown with Musk is unwelcome turbulence for a prime minister, who, like all other world leaders, has been trying to build a relationship with Trump to spare his nation from the worst consequences of a new US foreign policy built on forcing American might on friends and foes alike.
Musk’s antics are making it far harder for them to accommodate an incoming American president who is already deeply unpopular in many of their nations. The transatlantic fury might soon become a problem for Trump as well.