Colin Sheridan: Donald Trump’s ego our only hope that Musk won't do more damage
Elon Musk, born and raised in South Africa, a man who has never lived or paid taxes in England, has intentionally set out to undermine and effectively overthrow Kier Starmer's Labour government by stirring up one of the most emotive hornet nests imaginable, one that is mired in child-protection issues, government and police failures, and the one thing that unites all far-right thinkers, Islamophobia. File photo
Remember those movies from a different time when a dispatch rider would arrive in an outpost town, his horse limp from exhaustion, the messenger parched, half passed out in the saddle?
A concerned local would catch him as he collapsed off the horse's back. Water would be fetched for both, before some parchment would be unravelled and read aloud to the expectant townspeople.
“The war is over,” it might say, or “The Giants win the pennant!” Not anymore. Now, Elon Musk posts on X; moments later, the Yen crashes. cryptocurrencies tank. Governments fall. Hollywood couples file for divorce. It’s a new normal, and none of us should like it.
Since dumping at least $250m into Donald Trump’s campaign, Musk has become arm candy for the president-elect, who is set to be inaugurated next week. How long the infatuation will last is anybody's guess given the president's legendary proclivity for trigger-happiness when it comes to firing his lieutenants.
For now, though, Musk is very much de rigueur. He’s even got a job title in the incoming administration — co-chair of the brand-new 'Department of Government Efficiency' — a paradoxical entity whose sole job description seems to be sacking civil servants.
If only that were it. In recent weeks, Musk has posited himself as a joint reincarnation of Henry Kissinger and Eugène Terre'Blanche, just with virtual reality goggles and his own social media platform to disseminate his views like a gargantuan slurry-spreader.
Reports suggest Musk has been joining Trump on calls with foreign leaders since his re-election, unusual for a fella with zero foreign policy experience who only became a US citizen in 2001, and who — according to recent reports in the — began his career working illegally in America when building a Silicon Valley start-up in the 1990s.
And it’s this interference in foreign policy that should make us all put down our phones, sit up and take notice.
In just the past week, he has used X — the platform which he owns — to “demand” a new national inquiry in Britain into historic grooming cases involving the sexual exploitation of girls by gangs of mainly British-Asian men in several British towns and cities.
Musk, born and raised in South Africa, a man who has never lived or paid taxes in England, has intentionally set out to undermine and effectively overthrow Keir Starmer's Labour government by stirring up one of the most emotive hornet nests imaginable, one that is mired in child-protection issues, government and police failures, and the one thing that unites all far-right thinkers, Islamophobia.
If he can survive another week in Trumpland, Musk will be at the president's side when he's sworn in on Monday week.
Apparently, Starmer will not be there, which is perhaps for the better as Musk has directly accused the British prime minister of being “complicit” in the “rape of Britain” during his tenure as director of public prosecutions (DPP) between 2008 and 2013.
Furthermore, he has described Jess Phillips, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, as a “rape genocide apologist” because she declined to launch a state-led investigation into the grooming scandal in Oldham. Phillips has quite reasonably suggested Musk's comments have endangered her life.
As if all that weren’t bad enough, Musk has doubled down on his support for notorious far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, who is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence in Britain for contempt of court.
The Tesla CEO recently pinned a post to the top of his page on X (meaning it’s the first thing all his followers would see) saying “Free Tommy Robinson!” He followed that up with at least a dozen more posts lauding Robinson and criticising the Labour government.
Just about the least egregious intervention Musk made in recent weeks has been his lament that Reform UK “needs a new leader” because Nigel Farage “doesn’t have what it takes”. The shame here is the inference that Farage is not extreme enough for Musk's tastes.
What a world. Remember it's not so long ago Musk supported the absurd notion that Conor McGregor should run for the Irish presidency while at the same time accusing then taoiseach Leo Varadkar of hating Irish people.
As recently as Thursday, he wrote that “Irish citizens get longer sentences than illegal immigrants. That’s messed up," as casually as someone might post about fantasy football.
This is a guy who is about to become a senior officer in the government of the United States. It would be funny if he weren't so dangerous.
Musk is an over-indulged savant who uses his immense wealth, platform and following as a weapon of mass misinformation. UK politics is fertile ground for such a nefarious actor, with no coherent opposition, meaning there is a leadership gap, one that a Musk-backed stooge could easily fill with disastrous consequences for law and order.
Austria is on the verge of an extremely far-right government. The Netherlands, Hungary, and Italy are already there.
Ironically, Trump’s ego is our only hope. Should he stay true to form and tire of his new side-piece, he might just fire him before the US absentmindedly annexes Canada, invades Greenland, and tries to overthrow the British monarchy.
In the meantime, I long for the horse in the distance. Instant information is one thing. Instant misinformation from an overly Botoxed tech-billionaire is another toxic mess entirely.
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