Elon Musk's Far-Right Global Counterrevolution
The tech mogul's endorsement of the German far-right is part of a global trend
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Elon Musk was pivotal in helping Donald Trump win a second term as U.S. president. According to Federal Election Commission filings, the world's richest person spent $277 million helping to elect Trump and other Republican candidates. According to the Washington Post, Musk's posts on X have a far larger reach than Trump or all members of Congress combined; he has frequently blasted out his support for Trump and amplified spurious far-right claims about voter fraud and illegal immigration. Earlier this week, his posts on X helped torpedo a year-end spending deal in the U.S. Congress; the Republican-led House averted a shutdown late on December 20 by passing a bill funding the government through mid-March.
But Musk's political influence extends beyond the United States. In recent days, Musk has voiced support for far-right insurgent parties in Germany and the U.K. He has also cultivated strong friendships with right-wing leaders like Giorgia Meloni of Italy and Javier Milei of Argentina. And according to the Wall Street Journal, Musk is in regular contact with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who seeks to upend the Western-led international order with allies like Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Taken together, Musk, who has a net worth north of $400 billion, appears to be trying for a counterrevolution with a coterie of right-wing leaders. This revolt against the crumbling liberal order could normalize the role of tycoons wielding influence in politics and radically reduce the power of government vis-a-vis corporations.
While billionaires exerting influence in U.S. politics isn't new, it is far less common in European countries with limits on campaign spending. Musk, who has said that "civil war" is inevitable in the U.K., is on the cusp of playing a big role in British politics. Musk, according to the Times of London, is considering donating up to $100 million to Reform UK, the hard-right party headed by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage. This kind of money is unheard of in U.K. politics. If the donation goes through -- potentially via X's registered entity in the U.K. -- it could help Reform replace the Conservative Party as Britain's right-wing party. Reform is considerably to the right of the Tories; for example, while the U.K.'s Conservative government has robustly supported Ukraine, Farage does not think Ukraine can win with Western aid.
On paper, donating large amounts would be more difficult for Musk to do in Germany, where he endorsed the far-right Alternative Für Deutschland in a December 20 post. Campaign law limits foreign donations to 1,000 Euros for non-EU foreigners; state and local laws limit campaign advertising to a few weeks before the election. Nevertheless, his post saying that "only the AfD can save Germany" ahead of the February 23 elections garnered over 45 million views. The AfD promoted the tweet in a campaign graphic and AfD co-chair Alice Weidel responded in English thanking him, which is unusual since her posts are normally in German. The Musk post provides international credibility to a party that the French far-right, headed by Marine Le Pen, refused to ally with in the European Parliament. Despite AfD officials echoing Nazi slogans and Chancellor Olaf Scholz and many Germans saying the party is a threat to democracy, AfD is projected to be the largest opposition party in the next German parliament.Â
Musk's allies extend beyond Europe and the United States: in Argentina, President Javier Milei cut government spending by 30 percent and saw inflation drop by more than 20 percent, while poverty skyrocketed. Musk's co-chair for the proposed advisory board, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Vivek Ramswamy, has called for "Milei-style cuts, on steroids" "to fix the U.S. government." However, the U.S. is not Argentina with its history of wasteful government: such cuts would be nearly impossible without slashing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Musk has admitted that cuts would cause "temporary hardship" for Americans. As in Argentina, many more Americans would likely be sent into poverty were DOGE to cut 30 percent of the budget as planned. That hasn't happened yet: the U.S. Congress voted down the budget plan Musk and Trump favored and passed another one that outgoing President Joe Biden signed. Despite the tactical defeat, Musk's meddling in global politics is just beginning.