Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Zuma
Elon Musk has spent the last few days on X expressing his support for Reform UK, a far-right populist party founded by Brexit booster Nigel Farage. This is the second time in recent weeks Musk has used X to try to whip up support for far-right politicians outside the United States; he’s also spent a good deal of time championing Germany’s AfD party, claiming on X and in a German newspaper op-ed that the ultra-nationalist party is that country’s “only hope”—wording he also used when praising Reform.
Musk has also promoted virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric from the UK.
In both cases, Musk’s opposition to immigration—despite being an immigrant to the United State himself—seems to play a key role in his support for the ultra-nationalist parties. Reform bills itself as offering “common sense policies on immigration, the cost of living, energy and national sovereignty.” In practice, that’s meant calling for a freeze on “non-essential” immigration, a message that seems to have resonated with some older white voters in Britain.
Musk has also promoted virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric from the UK, reposting a British Twitter user’s complaint about a sprawling child sexual abuse scandal in which gangs of men in the north of England and the Midlands sexually exploited children for at least a decade. Sometimes referred to as the Rotherham scandal, the perpetrators were overwhelmingly British-Pakistani men who exploited white girls; Andrew Norfolk, the journalist who uncovered the scandal in 2011, told the BBC recently that the case “was a dream story for the far-right,” adding, “They had no interest in solutions, they were interested in exploiting the situation.”
“Vote Reform,” Musk’s tweet added in his repost. “It’s the only hope.”
Farage claimed in December that Musk was in talks to make a donation to Reform after the two men and Reform’s treasurer Nick Candy met at Mar-a-Lago. (Musk could legally donate through X because the company has a UK office, but the news that he’s considering doing so has spurred calls for campaign finance reform.) Candy said in an interview that “a number of billionaires” were considering donating to the party
Amid his warm missives about ultra-nationalist leaders, Musk also posted approvingly about English far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who has been jailed for contempt of court after repeatedly making false claims about Jamal Hijazi, a teenage Syrian refugee who was subjected to violent bullying and attacked on a school playground in West Yorkshire. Robinson was found to have libeled Hijazi in 2021 and ordered to pay him 100,000 pounds; instead, Robinson made a documentary falsely claiming Hijazi was the aggressor, and depicting himself as a martyr for free speech for discussing the case. (Robinson’s lawyer told a judge that the film was “effectively commissioned” by Infowars, which is owned by American conspiracy mega-entrepreneur Alex Jones, explaining it funded production and provided equipment.)
“Free Tommy Robinson!” Musk wrote. He also shared Robinson’s documentary; that tweet has been viewed two million times.
Musk is far from the only figure on the American right to recently indulge in foreign far-right politics and their attendant controversies. Chaya Raichik, the conservative activist behind Libs of TikTok, has also posted about the Rotherham scandal, as has tech billionaire and Trump backer Bill Ackman, who criticized UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and King Charles, for some reason, for not taking action. American figures posting about the scandal give the appearance of having learned about it quite recently, and seem unaware of the long history of criminal and civil investigations launched since the scandal came to light, and that dozens of men have been convicted related charges. While the UK’s Conservative party has called for a new national investigation into the case, the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council released an in 2014.
Besides the UK and Germany, there are clear signs that Musk may yet involve himself in Italian politics. He’s formed a very public friendship with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has a long history in ultra-nationalist politics. Meloni has dubbed the rocket- and satellite-magnate “a genius,” but promised political leaders that she wouldn’t be influenced by him when regulating “private activity in space.”
