Vittoria Elliott
During the US elections, centibillionaire and X owner Elon Musk became a central figure in right-wing and Republican politics, helping to propel former president Donald Trump back into the White House. But now it seems like he’s just getting started. In the months since Trump’s victory, Musk has begun to wade into politics in Europe, starting firestorms in the UK and announcing that he’ll be hosting an X Spaces discussion with Alice Weidel, the head of the German right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), ahead of Germany’s elections in February.
“We should understand Musk as a sort of international far-right leader,” says João Vieira Magalhaes, assistant professor of media, politics, and democracy at the University of Groningen. “He is an articulator of a truly international far-right movement, which of course, already exists, but in a way that's way more fragmented.”
Through X, and his own larger-than-life celebrity presence, Musk is bringing together and boosting the far right across the globe.
During the US elections, Musk emerged as one of Trump’s most important allies. Not only did he help support and fund Trump’s campaign via the America PAC and appear on the campaign trail with the former president, he also used his ownership of X to elevate the campaign’s talking points. After gutting Twitter’s trust and safety teams and allowing previously banned figures back on the platform, research indicated that engagement on X with posts from Musk and other conservative voices were boosted after after Musk publicly endorsed Trump to favor conservative voices and deprioritize critics—what Magalhaes calls “illiberal content moderation.” “He is signaling to whoever wants to listen that this is the space for this kind of political actor,” he says.
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