Why does Elon Musk criticize EU leaders and how much does it have to do with Trump?

Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy. No major European nation seems to be able to escape Elon Musk the powerful American billionaire who has been proving himself for a few weeks increasingly interested – and above all critical – towards European politics.

In particular, we read on CNN, the foreign policy action of the founder of SpaceX, aimed mainly at promoting far-right parties, it outrages the leaders by posing them two great dilemmas: how to respond to him in the right way without offending or provoking his “protector” Donald Trump? Should Musk’s positions be treated as simple personal opinions, or as clues to the European agenda of the next American administration?

Musk’s attacks occur primarily on his platform X, and his posts are read by more than 211 million followers. But the criticisms, often with very violent tones, are annoying – and worrying – many of its ‘targets’.

The latest attack on Farage

The latest attack launched by Musk was once again against the internal politics of Great Britain. After lashing out directly against Prime Minister Keir Starmer, accusing him of “facilitating the rape of minors”, the founder and owner of Tesla and Space “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes” to lead the party, he wrote in a post. A statement that came a few weeks after Farage himself had announced that he was in negotiations with the billionaire to receive a substantial financial donation.

The reaction of the leaders

The British Prime Minister Starmer warned that X’s owner had “crossed the line.” The French president Emmanuel Macron accused Musk of fueling a new “international reactionary movement” and intervening in elections. The Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre he called it “troubling” that a man with such influence would be so directly involved in the affairs of other countries.

The first litmus test of Musk’s actual influence will be on February 23, when Germans go to the polls to elect the new Chancellor. The founder of Tesla and SpaceX is famously close to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, and will host leader Alice Weidel for an interview on ” after the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, he said that there is “nothing new” in the criticism of “rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics and do not they hold back with their opinions”, but he is “concerned” by the billionaire’s support for an extremist party like Afd.

The US model

According to CNN, Musk is trying to export Trump’s “Make America Great Again” model to Europe, lashing out at representatives of the establishment and trying to promote far-right populistsoutsiders, whose opinions and temperaments mirror those of the American president-elect. While for many Americans Musk is simply exercising his First Amendment rights, a continent the broadcaster calls “haunted by the horror of far-right extremism,” his support for radical populism is seen by many as offensive and a attempt to stifle freedom and democracy, rather than a demonstration of free speech.

It is not yet fully clear to what extent Musk is acting following the Trumpian agenda. “Will Musk advance Trump’s foreign policy agenda, acting as Trump’s personal ambassador everywhere? – asks Lindsay Gorman, managing director of the German Marshall Fund – Or will Musk advance his vision for global affairs, which could align with Trump in some ways, but not in others. So what will the power dynamics be between the two”?

The friendship with Meloni and Orban

Musk and Trump are also close to what CNN defines as the two “most influential national leaders in Europe”, Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orban. In fact, there are those who look positively at the new administration and its advisor, and the Wall Street Journal underlined how Meloni is “one of the few European leaders that Musk admires”. The two have met several times in recent years, and are very in tune on issues such as immigration, declining birth rates and ‘woke ideology’. The WSJ also recalled that speaking to Corriere della Sera, Meloni defined the billionaire as “a great personality of our time, an extraordinary innovator who always has his eye on the future”.

The risks for Trump

However, CNN warns that it could be risky for the new administration to become scorched earth among European leaders. Trump may one day need help from allies, and Musk’s ‘antics’ risk immediately putting relations between the tycoon and the European elite on the rise. Ed Davey, leader of the British Liberal Democrats, issued a warning about X: “People have had enough of Elon Musk interfering with our country’s democracy when it is clear he knows nothing about Britain.” Davey refers to the tycoon’s constant calls to conduct new elections in Great Britain, “overlooking” the fact that the last ones were held just 6 months ago.

Musk’s digs could ultimately complicate the job for Marco Rubio and Michael Waltz, chosen by Trump as the next secretary of state and national security advisor respectively. “I think it’s all going to get very confusing very quickly. I don’t envy the career diplomats at the State Department, who will certainly have their hands full trying to figure out whose agenda they’re pushing,” Gorman concluded.