\n<\/p>\n
When the far-right activist Tommy Robinson emerged from a London courtroom this week after a judge cleared him of a terrorism charge, he gave thanks to the man he said had bankrolled his defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cElon Musk, I\u2019m forever grateful. If you didn\u2019t step in and fund my legal fight I\u2019d probably be in jail,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cThank you, Elon.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the period immediately after Musk\u2019s messy departure from the White House, the Tesla CEO repeatedly suggested that he was done with politics. Investors who had pushed him to refocus on his businesses were delighted. Tesla\u2019s stock rose. The months since, however, have proved that Musk has failed to abandon his political preoccupations. He has done the opposite, veering further into election conspiracies and extreme anti-immigration views.<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s political endeavors since leaving the Trump administration have included leveraging his social media platform as a pulpit to influence New York City\u2019s mayoral race and creating an AI-generated, rightwing knockoff of Wikipedia. In interviews, he has said there is a \u201chomeless industrial complex\u201d of nonprofits ruining California and complained that \u201cit should be okay to have white pride\u201d. On X, he proclaimed that the UK would fall into civil war and western civilization would collapse.<\/p>\n
The same day that Robinson extended his gratitude, Musk posted claims that \u201cillegals\u201d were committing voting fraud in the US, retweeted complaints about video games becoming \u201cwoke\u201d and called established media outlets leftist propaganda.<\/p>\n
The political fixations of the world\u2019s richest man have taken a toll on his businesses. A Yale study published last month found that his divisive rhetoric and far-right political affiliations cost Tesla about a million vehicle sales between his acquisition of Twitter in 2022 and April of this year. Consumer polling found that Tesla\u2019s brand loyalty plummeted over the course of 2025 as Musk\u2019s \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d dismantled government agencies, which included cuts to foreign aid that experts project could result in around 14 million deaths globally.<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s personal approval rating has also sunk to record lows this year, according to multiple surveys. He held the lowest favorability out of 14 major political newsmakers, according to a Gallup poll from August, ranking five percentage points below Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing charges of war crimes from the international criminal court. A separate Quinnipiac poll in June found that only around 2 in 10 women in the US held a favorable view of Musk.<\/p>\n
Yet the social and financial backlash to Musk\u2019s politics has not quelled his public embrace of the far-right, and in characteristically stubborn fashion, he has begun flaunting his affiliations more openly while suggesting that being labeled racist or extremist is now meaningless to him. Tesla\u2019s shareholders have also continued to endorse him. On Thursday, they voted by a huge margin in favor of a $1tn compensation package for him, slated to be the biggest in corporate history.<\/p>\n
Insulated from major financial consequences and existing in an online bubble of his own making, Musk has positioned himself as a fixture of the international far-right even after his influence within the Trump administration has waned.<\/p>\n
Musk has long maintained friendly relationships with some of the world\u2019s most prominent far-right leaders, ringing in the year with an appearance at a campaign rally for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party. His speech, which came days after he was accused of giving fascist salutes on stage following Trump\u2019s inauguration, drew criticism from Jewish leaders after he told the crowd that Germany has \u201ctoo much of a focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that\u201d.<\/p>\n
In recent months, Musk\u2019s affiliations with pro-nativist political movements have gone beyond established parties to direct engagement with far-right activists and influencers via X. Robinson, a longtime anti-Islam campaigner who has previously been jailed for contempt of court after libeling a teenage Syrian refugee, has received special attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is time for the English to ally with the hard men, like Tommy Robinson, and fight for their survival or they shall surely all perish,\u201d Musk wrote on X in response to a video of a man being stabbed to death. He claimed the same \u201cwill happen to all of England if the tide of illegal immigration is not turned.\u201d<\/p>\n
In September, Musk appeared via livestream at one of Robinson\u2019s rallies in London to call for the UK government to be dissolved and claim that immigration was causing \u201cthe destruction of Britain\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die,\u201d Musk told the crowd. Downing Street later condemned Musk\u2019s remarks, saying they threatened to incite violence and intimidation.<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s acquisition of Twitter in 2022 has overall been a boon to the UK\u2019s far right. The company\u2019s previous ownership had banned many of the movement\u2019s leaders for violating policies around hateful conduct. Musk reinstated activists from Britain\u2019s most prominent neo-Nazi group and restored Robinson\u2019s account, which had been removed after he posted calls to mass deport Muslim refugees.<\/p>\n
Musk has also become the most prominent backer of the fringe UK political movement Restore Britain, with the Texas-based billionaire posting positive messages about its leader Rupert Lowe. Restore Britain published a 113-page policy document earlier this year outlining a plan for the mass deportation of all undocumented immigrants, which suggested using military aircraft to put thousands of people on deportation flights to Rwanda regardless of their country of origin.<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s increasing meddling into UK politics has drawn criticism from the country\u2019s Labour government, as well as anti-hate groups and other establishment politicians.<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cElon Musk is deliberately using his platform to poison our politics and divide our country,\u201d Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey posted on Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s time for the government to wake up to the threat he poses to our country\u201d.<\/p>\n While Musk has inserted himself into international politics, he has also been busy building out online platforms and tools that advance his conservative worldview. The idea that artificial intelligence would become too \u201cpolitically correct\u201d and \u201cwoke\u201d in its outputs has haunted Musk for years, and he has frequently indulged in futuristic thought experiments to voice his fears.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it says everyone must be diverse it means there can be no straight white men, then you and I will be executed by AI,\u201d Musk said on Joe Rogan\u2019s podcast last week, tweaking the famous \u201cpaper clip problem\u201d, which theorizes that an AI would decimate humanity to make paper clips if instructed that manufacturing them was its sole purpose.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s answer to his version of AI\u2019s alignment problem has been to use his xAI artificial intelligence company, which has taken up much of his attention since leaving government, to create products that more closely align with his views. In theory, he\u2019s creating right-wing copies of popular sites and products that function the same way as their originals. In practice, they have malfunctioned. Musk\u2019s attempt to create a more conservative-leaning AI model has led to incidents in recent months like xAI\u2019s Grok chatbot spouting conspiracies about \u201cwhite genocide\u201d and calling itself \u201cMechaHitler\u201d.<\/p>\n As well as speaking to online allies aligned with him, Musk has also used his social media platform to attack non-profits and politicians he opposes.<\/p>\n Musk was at the center of a campaign last month against the Anti-Defamation League, the US\u2019 most prominent Jewish advocacy organization, which faced rightwing backlash for an article that documented connections between slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk\u2019s group Turning Point USA and extremists. Musk claimed that the ADL \u201chates Christians\u201d and encouraged murder and shared rightwing influencers\u2019 posts attacking the group. The campaign led to the ADL removing its entire glossary of extremism, which it had previously touted as the most comprehensive resource on extremist organizations and movements.<\/p>\n Musk once again used his platform in the lead up to New York City\u2019s mayoral election, using a paid promotion feature to boost the reach of his post attacking Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, crowbaring his tweet into more users\u2019 feeds. On election day, he reposted a series of tweets that misinterpreted the election system and suggested a voting conspiracy was at play.<\/p>\n As an extension of Musk\u2019s pursuit of an alternative information ecosystem, xAI also launched a Wikipedia imitation called \u201cGrokipedia\u201d last month that Musk has touted as superior and free of bias. Researchers have found that it contained a large amount of false information on public figures and events, had copied some entries almost verbatim from Wikipedia and emphasized rightwing narratives about slavery, immigration and trans rights.<\/p>\n An entry on Britain First, described by Wikipedia as a \u201cneo-Fascist party,\u201d referred to the organization as a \u201cpatriotic political party\u201d.<\/p>\n Quick Guide<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Show<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.<\/p>\n If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.<\/p>\n Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/strong><\/p>\n The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS\/Android) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019. <\/p>\n SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post<\/strong><\/p>\n If you can safely use the Tor network without being observed or monitored, you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.<\/p>\n Finally, our guide at theguardian.com\/tips\u00a0lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration: Guardian Design \/ Rich Cousins<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the far-right activist Tommy Robinson emerged from a London courtroom this week after a judge cleared him of a terrorism charge, he gave thanks to the man he said had bankrolled his defense. \u201cElon Musk, I\u2019m forever grateful. If you didn\u2019t step in and fund my legal fight I\u2019d probably be in jail,\u201d Robinson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[18829,91,8305,18438,671,1371,2168],"class_list":{"0":"post-32689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-departure","9":"tag-elon","10":"tag-farright","11":"tag-fixture","12":"tag-house","13":"tag-musk","14":"tag-white"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Creating a right wing bubble online<\/h2>\n
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