London Following far-right leader Nigel Farages’ suggestion that Elon Musk donate to his once fringe right-wing party, lawmakers in the UK are debating whether to expedite legislation intended to prevent foreign meddling in national elections. This is the richest man in the world showing off his newly acquired political power.
Governments on both sides of the Atlantic are being forced to deal with Musk’s increasing political and cultural influence. What started out as a tech tycoon ranting against political correctness in the United States has turned into what seems to be a global campaign of support for far-right policies.
After meeting Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last week, Farage told the BBC that his Reform UK party was still in talks with Musk.
Musk, a U.S. citizen who was born in South Africa, is not allowed to personally donate to a British political party, but he might be able to do so through the U.K. subsidiaries of his many businesses, which are said to have generated about 90 million in earnings in the last two years.
He wishes to assist us. According to Farage, he has nothing against the idea of lending us money as long as it can be done lawfully through UK businesses.
According to the Guardian newspaper, the U.K. Electoral Commission has stated that Prime Minister Keir Starmer has to tighten regulations on political donations in order to safeguard its elections from outside meddling.
The amount that foreign nationals can donate through U.K.-based businesses may be restricted by such regulations.
A conversation between Farage and Musk in Florida has MPs scrambling more than 4,000 miles away, despite some U.K. lawmakers allegedly opposing the requests. This demonstrates once again how the billionaire’s comments have sway much beyond the tech industry.
Musk, who once identified as a moderate and contributed to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, has progressively adopted far-right views, regularly criticizing the so-called awakened mind virus and supporting anti-immigration sentiments.
His change coincides with Donald Trump’s comeback and the emergence of far-right parties around Europe, such as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France and Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic party in the Netherlands.
The U.K. has previously had to deal with the billionaire’s politics before his confrontation with Farage.
Musk has been publicly and provocatively at odds with the center-left Starmer. Musk tweeted a video of a far-right activist who was imprisoned, heightened calls for a general election only months after Starmer was appointed prime minister, and accused Britain of being an oppressive police state.
Musk publicly supported Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right party that the nation’s domestic intelligence agency is keeping an eye on for possible extremism, last week across the English Channel in continental Europe.
Although he has appealed the decisions, the leader of the AfD, Bj rn Hcke, has been found guilty twice by a German court of intentionally using Nazi rhetoric.
Musk’s support for the AfD comes as Germany prepares for quick elections following Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s loss of a confidence vote.
Musk said on X that only the AfD could save Germany the morning before a fatal attack at a Magdeburg Christmas market, when the suspect was found to have sympathies for far-right groups like the AfD.
During a black-tie affair in New York in September, Musk lauded far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, calling her a brilliant genius who is even more beautiful on the inside than the outside.
According to stories in The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers, he has interacted behind the scenes with leaders that many view as U.S. enemies, like as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At a dinner in San Francisco in 2023, Musk and Xi had a face-to-face meeting. The majority of his Tesla electric cars are produced in China, notably at one of Tesla’s biggest plants, the Gigafactory Shanghai.
A former U.S. intelligence official told NBC News that he was more worried about conflicts of interest when asked about Musk’s impact on foreign policy. That wouldn’t be allowed in any other situation, but since it involves Trump, the rules have changed.
Additionally, Musk has already demonstrated his influence over the political system in the United States by working with Trump to essentially kill a legislative spending measure, which has brought the government to the verge of shutdown.
Although Musk’s prominent involvement shown his abilities in Washington, his ability to exert political influence might start to extend beyond of the United States.
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