Bromance
on the rocks: where does Musk’s brush-off leave Nigel Farage?
The Reform
leader’s dalliance with the US billionaire looks in trouble after an abrupt
about-turn from the X boss
Daniel
Boffey
Daniel
Boffey Chief reporter
Mon 6 Jan
2025 17.27 GMT
It was the
morning after the rather disappointing day before. “At the moment, I am just
letting things lie,” Nigel Farage told the Guardian with a dry chuckle on being
asked whether he might attempt a rapprochement with the world’s richest man.
It has been
quite the three weeks since Farage and Reform’s treasurer, Nick Candy, enjoyed
a well-publicised meeting with Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in
Florida’s Palm Beach.
According to
Farage’s own account at the time, Musk had been “generous with his time” and
there had been talks about a donation to Reform’s coffers. It appeared to
herald a new dawn in British politics.
“He
described the Labour and Conservative parties as the uniparty, and left us in
no doubt that he is right behind us,” Farage wrote of their discussions on 16
December. On 2 January, Musk, among his many tweets about the UK and child
abuse, tweeted: “Britain needs Reform now.”
By Sunday, a
different mood had taken the capricious billionaire. “The Reform party needs a
new leader,” Musk informed his 211 million followers. “Farage doesn’t have what
it takes.”
The unlikely
bromance appeared to be over. The cause was seemingly Farage’s attempt to
distance himself from Musk’s support for Tommy Robinson, the convicted
fraudster and former English Defence League leader who is in prison for
contempt of court. But does it really matter?
It has been
contended by some Reform insiders that the row has only helped the party by
distinguishing it in the public consciousness from Robinson’s worldview.
“And there
was never going to be a donation [from Musk],” said Gawain Towler, who was a
press adviser to Farage until October. It was something cooked up in the media,
and stoked by the principal players for their own purposes, he suggested.
Speculation
about a donation had been a PR gift for Farage, who had admitted on Sunday that
the association with the Tesla boss had given Reform a certain “cool”; and
“there is devilment in Musk”, Towler added. But “rich and powerful people don’t
like being told what to do”, Towler said of the subsequent breach. “Nigel
Farage’s relationship with Donald Trump is on a far more solid ground than
this,” he said.
Indeed, it
is the question of whether the falling out with Musk will affect Farage’s
relationship with Trump that is perhaps key to whether this short and stormy
affair has impact on the political scene.
Not because
the US president-elect’s endorsement of Farage is a vote winner in itself, the
polling suggests. A YouGov survey in November suggested that only one in six
Britons (16%) wanted a Trump victory, compared with six in 10 (61%) who wanted
Kamala Harris to become America’s first female president. Just 20% of Britons
said they felt happy about the result, compared with 57% who were unhappy,
including 45% who were “very unhappy”.
The value of
the Trump relationship to Farage, it seems, is that it provides profile and
credibility in the eyes of other potential benefactors. “Nick Candy is the
treasurer and he has had conversations with other people [about big donations]
– British people,” said Towler. Being close to Farage is to be close to the
Maga (Make America Great Again) movement as it takes over the White House and
the reins of the American economy. But could Musk, who has Trump’s ear, seek to
break this potentially lucrative link?
That Musk
can be vindictive does not seem in doubt. His rifts with those to whom he has
been seemingly close and warm are legion.
Sam Altman,
who founded OpenAI with Musk, has called him a bully over the barrage of
criticism and lawsuits that followed a contractual disagreement.
Martin
Eberhard, one of the co-founders of Tesla, sued Musk in 2009, accusing him of
libel and slander against him. Musk denied the allegations and the two
eventually settled but the smallest slight can be enough to trigger trouble.
Shortly
before Musk had completed the purchase of Twitter, he had a dinner with the
company’s chief executive Parag Agrawal.
Musk and
Agrawal exchanged messages after the meal. “Hey Elon – great to be connected
directly. Would love to chat,” Agrawal wrote.
“Great
dinner :),” Musk responded. The next month, Musk tweeted: “Most of these ‘top’
accounts tweet rarely and post very little content. Is Twitter dying?”
Agrawal sent
Musk a text: “You are free to tweet ‘Is Twitter dying?’ or anything else about
Twitter, but it’s my responsibility to tell you that it’s not helping me make
Twitter better in the current context.”
“What did
you get done this week?” Musk responded. Agrawal was fired on completion of the
purchase.
Musk, the
self-titled “first buddy”, has Trump’s ear. Trump has appointed Musk and the
former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to head a Department of
Government Efficiency (Doge).
The risk of
a sour relationship with Musk proving contagious and influencing views in the
White House was said to be partly behind Downing Street’s reticence in hitting
back at the very many slights and slurs that have been directed at Keir Starmer
and his ministers in recent days.
But Trump
has his own patchy record when it comes to maintaining political alliances. It
is yet to be seen how the Trump-Musk relationship will pan out. Starmer decided
on Monday that hitting back was a risk worth taking.
“Those that
are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible, they’re
not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves,” the prime
minister said, in a thinly veiled reference to Musk’s comments about child
exploitation.
Those who
know him say Farage will keep his powder dry. “Less said, the better,” Towler
said. The storm might pass without further incident. But if this week has
proven anything it is that friendships are fickle in the Maga world.
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