Elon Musk Is Becoming the Face of the Global Far-Right

Yahoo

27-02-2025

Over the past few weeks, multiple clips of Elon Musk in action have gone viral across the world, each conveying evidence of the billionaire's transition from high-tech superstar to right-wing political activist. With every passing day, as he carries out his prominent role in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and wades ever more deeply into European politics, Musk is becoming an aspirational leader of a far-right movement that is rising across the democratic West.
There's the video of Musk gleefully waving a chainsaw in an appearance alongside Argentine President Javier Milei at the Conservative Political Action Conference, a symbol of both men's approach to slashing government spending and jobs. Another shows Musk with his four-year-old son on his shoulders in the Oval Office next to a seated Trump, lecturing the media about his cost-cutting plans.
Then there is Musk's video address to a campaign rally for the ultra-rightwing party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, just before that country's elections, with only a Big Brother-style closeup of his head appearing on the screen. In his remarks, Musk not only threw his support behind a party that is viewed as too extreme even by some of the other right-wing populist parties across Europe. Speaking on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, he told the crowd that Germany should discard its guilt over its Nazi past and that the AfD is the only force that can 'save' the country. The AfD ended up finishing second in the election, a strong showing and major advance on its previous electoral results, but there is no evidence that Musk's endorsement—or that of Vice President JD Vance—moved the needle.
The AfD is far more extreme than its European peers. Last year, one of its top officials declared that members of the Nazi SS were 'not all criminals.' That was the last straw even for other European anti-immigrant populist leaders. In response, the grouping of far-right parties in the European Parliament, known as Identity and Democracy, announced it had expelled AfD from its midst.
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Incidentally, Musk's ostentatious Nazi salute last month at an inauguration event in Washington has already inspired others to do their own stiff-armed salute, including Steve Bannon, another far-right stalwart and Trump supporter who nevertheless is engaged in an open feud with Musk himself. After Bannon flashed the gesture during his own appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, French far-right leader Jordan Bardella canceled his appearance at the event, citing what he described as a 'gesture referring to Nazi ideology.' As in Germany. the far right in the U.S. is becoming too extreme even for Europe's far right.
As a result, outside Europe's ultra-rightwing circles, Musk is increasingly viewed there as an activist pushing an extremist ideology that is a palpable threat to democracy. In the U.S., his detractors are more focused on his more immediate impact: the casual cruelty of his heavy-handed dismantling of government programs and jobs.
On both sides of the Atlantic, he is becoming the personification of the threats taking shape as the political pendulum swings further to the right, with no one knowing just how far it will reach. When Musk, sporting square sunglasses and a wide smile, hoisted Milei's trademark chainsaw at CPAC last week, it helped cement his emerging image among a large portion of the public as a callous, borderline sadistic actor.
One may agree or disagree with the need to fire large numbers of public servants, but the sheer joy he displayed, and the lack of empathy for people suddenly and unexpectedly finding themselves without a paycheck, offered a dark glimpse into the billionaire's values.
Days earlier, when he took his child, named X, to the White House, it was perhaps meant to humanize him at a time when he is causing so much angst and engendering so much antipathy. But it also showed just how comfortable the unelected mogul felt at the center of power.
The scene—with Musk standing and running the show, while Trump sat at the Oval Office's famous Resolute Desk watching the spectacle—visually reinforced Musk's link with the Trump administration, a link that looks almost sure to cost Trump dearly.
Polls show that only about 1-in-4 Americans approve of Musk and his high-profile, slash-and-burn campaign targeting the U.S. federal government.
In his signature black MAGA baseball cap, Musk is becoming a villain in the minds of large parts of the population. The wealthiest man alive is dismantling agencies that help the poorest of the poor, flexing his new political muscle with threatening emails to federal workers, while showing absolutely no compassion for the hardships he is causing. He has all the ingredients of a cartoon-style bad guy, sometimes resembling a Bond-style evil genius, but often more of a caricature from an Austin Powers parody.
For Trump, the risk is great. When Americans start to tangibly feel the impact of cuts made with little planning, Musk will remain adored by the extreme right and despised by almost everyone else. But it is Trump who will rightly be blamed for the excesses of Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE.
In Europe, the pushback against Musk is already in evidence in the public square, in the courts, in the media—and in Tesla sales.
Musk's increasingly direct efforts to influence elections in support of the far right in the U.K., France, Germany and elsewhere is alarming voters and political leaders. His transformation of X—formerly Twitter—into a home for disinformation and incitement against minorities, with Musk as one of the main promoters of controversial and false material on the platform, has caught the eye of European regulators. Legal cases and investigations of X are now popping up across the continent.
In France, investigators are pursuing complaints from a member of parliament, Eric Bothorel, who accused Musk of deliberately changing X's algorithm to influence elections in Europe. Bothorel called Musk 'a real danger and threat to our democracies.'
The X algorithm does its work quietly, but Musk likes the spotlight. As a result, sales of the product most closely identified with him—his Tesla electric vehicles—are tanking in Europe, despite sales of electric vehicles climbing across the globe. In the most recent month, January 2025, sales in Europe in particular nosedived, falling almost 60 percent in Germany, more than 63 percent in France and 75 percent in Spain.
The value of Musk's most prized asset has declined about 30 percent since Trump took office just over five weeks ago, shaving billions off his net worth and underscoring the financial consequences of his political adventurism. Of course, Musk can make up the losses elsewhere given his influence on the U.S. government, with which his companies hold lucrative contracts that, when combined with government loans, subsidies and tax credits they have received over the years, amount to $38 billion, according to the Washington Post.
In the meantime, Musk has completed a transformation from admired businessman and tech visionary to a symbol of the threats facing democracy in the West and a champion of the callous, cruel model of government that is emerging under his watch.
Frida Ghitis is WPR's senior columnist and a contributor to CNN and The Washington Post. Her WPR column appears every Thursday. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads at @fridaghitis.
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