How do you solve a problem like Elon Musk?

 

How do you solve a problem like Elon Musk?

 

The “chameleon” tech billionaire is one of the most powerful politically connected people in the world. Europe’s governments are still working out how to deal with being on his bad side.

Elon Musk has no compunction about lambasting serving administrations and throwing his weight behind opposition movements on the populist right.

 

January 3, 2025 6:10 pm CET

By Emilio Casalicchio, James Angelos, Eliza Gkritsi and Joshua Berlinger

https://www.politico.eu/article/solve-problem-elon-musk-uk/

 

LONDON — He’s a billionaire firebrand at the forefront of green tech, owns a powerful political media platform — and has the ear of the incoming president of the United States.

 

So it’s little wonder governments across Europe are in turmoil over how to navigate Elon Musk, while dodging his erratic and often ill-informed criticisms about their domestic politics.

 

The Tesla and X owner — tapped up to lead a government efficiency drive in Donald Trump's second U.S. presidential term — has no compunction about lambasting serving administrations and throwing his weight behind opposition movements on the populist right. That's despite him complaining about foreign interference when others attempt to get involved with U.S. politics.

 

His biggest beef appears to be with the British Labour government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer. But he has sharply criticized German Chancellor Olaf Scholz too and endorsed hard-right movements in both nations.

 

Other European leaders have attempted to court Musk in the hope of avoiding his ire and smoothing their relations with Trump, who Musk helped into office via millions of dollars in campaign funding.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron invited the Tesla and Twitter owner to the re-opening of Notre-Dame cathedral and wants him at an upcoming tech summit.

 

Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has built her own bond with Musk. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was forced to play nice with him during a post-election call with Trump, despite sharp disagreements over the response to Russia's full-scale invasion.

 

Leaders from further afield, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also increased their dealings with the businessman as the U.S. election loomed, to avoid the kind of harsh treatment meted out to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Musk appeared to endorse Trudeau's Conservative rival this week to boot.

 

Those who put the time in are being vindicated.

 

Trump rewarded the SpaceX mogul with his cost-cutting government appointment and has rarely been seen without Musk at his side since the election, cementing his influence on the coming administration.

 

Among his political allies and enemies, a consensus has formed that Musk is one of the most powerful people in the world — if not the most powerful. Getting on his bad side can have dire consequences.

 

"As a chameleon, you never know which version of Elon Musk is showing up," said one former U.K. government adviser who dealt with Musk and was granted anonymity to speak candidly about him. "He's a dangerous figure. And it's in no one's interests to have him as an enemy."

 

Just ask Keir Starmer

Musk launches social media attacks at Starmer with near-obsessive routine.

 

He has backed the Reform U.K. movement led by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage — a long-standing friend of Trump who met Musk last month and discussed a potential overseas donation.

 

In recent days, Musk has also thrown his weight behind far-right rabble-rouser Tommy Robinson — a step too far even for Farage. He did so while peddling claims Starmer failed to take the issue of child grooming gangs seriously while he was head of the British prosecution service.

 

The latest Musk musings on X earned a rebuke from Labour minister Andrew Gwynne. “Elon Musk is an American citizen and perhaps ought to focus on issues on the other side of the Atlantic,” he told LBC radio.

 

But Gwynne’s boss, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, offered the Tesla chief an olive branch in a later interview — demonstrating the tension in the British government over whether or not to rile the billionaire further.

 

Streeting said Musk's criticisms were “misjudged and certainly misinformed,” but stressed the British government is keen to cooperate with tech giants to tackle child sexual exploitation, Musk's latest crusade and a campaign point for Farage.

 

“We’re willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue,” Streeting told ITV News. “If he wants to work with us and roll his sleeves up, we'd welcome that.”

 

But Musk shows no signs of backing down and the U.K. government's refusal to invite him to a crucial investment summit last October may have sealed its reputation with the tech mogul.

 

For its part, Starmer's Downing Street studiously avoided commenting on Musk's latest attacks, even as Musk branded the prime minister “complicit in the RAPE OF BRITAIN" and demanded a fresh election.

 

Starmer's MPs — nervously eyeing a challenge from Farage's party — were less circumspect.

 

One, also granted anonymity to speak candidly, lamented that "at a time when communities need to come and work together, we have someone with a lot of influence sowing divisions and spreading hate."

 

Germany gives the middle finger

In Germany, mainstream political leaders are increasingly concerned about what Musk’s endorsement of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could mean for relations between the Trump administration and Germany’s next coalition government.

 

And they have been less shy than the U.K. government about taking on Musk directly.

 

The center-left Chancellor Scholz — a Musk bête noire — called a snap election for Feb. 23 and has found himself in a struggling campaign against the entrepreneur as well as his domestic political opponents.

 

In an interview with Funke Mediengruppe published in recent days, Social Democratic co-leader Lars Klingbeil compared Musk’s interventions in the German election to the influence operations backed by the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

“Both want to influence our elections and specifically support the AfD's enemies of democracy,” said Klingbeil. “They want Germany to be weakened and plunged into chaos.”

 

The conservative candidate in pole position to be Germany’s next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has portrayed himself as a leader who will be able to make “deals” with Trump — at a moment when German exports are exposed to the president-elect’s repeated threats of a trade war with Europe.

 

Many German mainstream politicians worry that, at the very least, Musk and the incoming administration will further undermine German centrist parties by normalizing the AfD and playing down its radicalism.

 

Those worries grew more pronounced when U.S. Vice President-elect JD Vance reposted an English-language translation of Musk’s controversial tribute to the AfD in Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

 

“I’m not endorsing a party in the German elections, as it’s not my country and we hope to have good relations with all Germans,” Vance wrote on X.

 

“But this is an interesting piece,” he added.

 

Musk hasn’t yet thrown his endorsement behind Marine Le Pen and the French far right. But President Macron — who, like Scholz in Germany, is politically fragile and facing domestic turbulence — is desperate to get him onside.

 

He has been urging the tech entrepreneur, alongside Trump, to attend a major artificial intelligence summit in Paris next month. The duo's appearance at the recent Notre-Dame reopening was a diplomatic coup for Macron.

 

“Trump doesn’t seem to hold Paris in the same contempt he holds the EU or Germany,” said a Republican foreign policy expert working with Trump’s transition team, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the team’s internal thinking. “Macron can take solace in the fact that he’s not Scholz.”

 

Making life difficult for Macron, however, is the European Commission, which continues investigations into whether X complies with its information rules.

 

It has found the microblogging site in breach of the Digital Services Act, the EU’s landmark content moderation law, for the deceptive design of “verified” badges and a lack of transparency to researchers.

 

The jury is still out on X's potential violations around the dissemination of illegal content and measures to fight information manipulation, and the Commission is mulling whether it could slap Musk with a mega-fine.

 

A back and forth between Musk and former European Commissioner for digital policy Thierry Breton became increasingly hostile. Breton resigned from his post shortly after their war of words, prompting glee from his nemesis.

 

European leaders are waiting to see where Musk turns his attention next once Trump takes office later this month.

 

The one certainty is the old rules of diplomacy are out the window.

 

"While his behavior is dubious, business and trade is fickle," said the former U.K. government adviser. "Governments should never rule out a significant opportunity to do business with him."

 

Noah Keate in London and Sue Allan in Ottawa contributed to this report.