European leaders to Elon: Back off
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President-elect Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
A chorus of European leaders is pushing back against Tesla CEO Elon Musk's meddling after he suggested Britain's prime minister should be imprisoned and questioned whether the U.S. should "liberate" its ally.
The big picture: Musk's influence looms large over U.S. politics with his MAGA alignment. Now he's casting a shadow over elections overseas, lambasting world leaders in recent days with his social media megaphone.
- Across dozens of posts over several days, Musk has attacked Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer. On Sunday Musk turned on Nigel Farage writing that the Trump-aligned Reform Party leader "doesn't have what it takes."
- Musk threw his support behind Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is known for its anti-immigrant views.
- He's also gotten cozy with a number of right-wing populist politicians, including Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni.
Friction point: While Musk has found a home in the MAGA movement, other world leaders are telling him to stay in his lane.
- Starmer hit back against those he said were "spreading lies and misinformation" about child sex grooming gangs and investigations into child sex abuse in the UK, the subject of several of Musk's posts.
- In one post, Musk said another Labour minister, Jess Phillips, should be "in prison" for rejecting the idea of a national probe of historic child sexual abuse, which she said should be handled locally.
- Starmer told reporters Monday that when the "poison of the far right" led to threats against Phillips and others, "a line has been crossed," CNN reported.
What they're saying: Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Monday that "This is not the way things should be between democracies and allies," Reuters reported, pointing to Musk's attempted meddling.
- "I find it worrying that a man with enormous access to social media and huge economic resources involves himself so directly in the internal affairs of other countries," he told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
Zoom out: Other mainstream political leaders shared Støre's sentiment.
- French President Emmanuel Macron in a speech to French ambassadors wondered who a decade ago "could have imagined ... that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections."
- Macron, who in the past has enjoyed a civil relationship with Musk, did not mention the tech mogul by name — but there was little doubt for whom the jab was intended.
- Neither X nor the Trump transition team immediately responded to Axios's request for comment.
Between the lines: Some senior politicians across UK political parties have privately urged Trump's allies to rethink his relationship with Elon Musk after his comments this weekend, Bloomberg reported.
State of play: Musk's comments were met with outrage from German leaders, with Berlin accusing him of trying to influence the country's snap elections next month in his X commentary and an opinion piece he penned praising AfD
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he's staying "cool" amid personal digs from Musk, per the AP, but finds it "much more worrying" that Musk waded into German politics by "supporting a party like the AfD, which is in parts right-wing extremist, which preaches rapprochement with Putin's Russia and wants to weaken transatlantic relations."
- Robert Habeck, the German Green Party's chancellor candidate, cautioned Musk against interfering in the country's politics, telling Der Spiegel magazine, "Hands off our democracy, Mr. Musk!"
Go deeper: Musk & Milei: How an international bromance could shape Trump-era spending cuts
