From his apparent “Nazi salute” at United States President Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration to his labelling of the US Agency for International Development as a “criminal organisation” that needs “to die” and the devastating austerity policies he excitedly pursues as the head of the newly minted “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)”, multibillionaire X owner Elon Musk has undoubtedly become a destructive force in American politics.But Musk’s narcissistic political ambitions are not limited by the borders of the United States. After helping Trump and his far-right MAGA movement assume control of the US, he has set his sights on replicating this success across the world.
The South African started his “world tour” of stirring far-right sentiments and attempting to install radical, Musk-friendly figures in positions of power in the United Kingdom.
Musk spent the past year periodically elevating British far-right voices, such as English Defence League co-founder Tommy Robinson and Reform Party leader Nigel Farage. In early January he once again tweeted “Free Tommy Robinson!” and shared a link to the UK far-right leader’s controversial documentary titled Silenced. Advertisement
In the documentary, reportedly commissioned by US far-right radio host Alex Jones’s InfoWars, Robinson falsely claims that Syrian refugee schoolboy Jamal Hijazi had violently attacked English schoolgirls and threatened to stab a boy at school.
Robinson had made the same claim a few years earlier in 2018 in a response to a viral video of Hijazi getting beaten at a school in Yorkshire. His response video on Facebook was viewed by more than a million people. Hijazi’s family faced death threats as a result.
Subsequently, Robinson – known to be funded by right-wing group …
