Has ‘Marmite’ Musk started the year as he means to go on?

Just as politicians, media and businesses have started to assess how much of an influence Elon Musk may be on Donald Trump’s second administration, a torrent of posts on X have been raising questions on what sway the world’s richest man could also have on this side of the pond.  

New year’s celebrations saw Musk at Donald Trump’s side in Florida and since the Presidential Election in November, Elon has been residing Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. Unless he is spending his time polishing the reported $7 million worth of gold leaf features at what Trump describes as his “Winter White House”, one can only assume that Elon’s vested interest here is to influence president-elect for favourable outcomes when it comes to all things Silicon Valley. There are questions as to how long the honeymoon period between these two polarising personalities will last, and when the almost inevitable bust up will come. 

Since the new year, Musk has turned his attention to the UK, with a seeming hyper fixation on child grooming gangs and what Keir Starmer knew about them during his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service. In addition to the current PM, Musk has also criticised UK politicians across the parties, with messages rolling in at pace through his amplified use of social media platform X, which he owns.  

Opening with a body blow to Nigel Farage just hours after the Reform leader had exhorted the billionaire as a ‘hero’, Musk posted that Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” to lead the party. Any satisfaction that could be found in this from across the benches was quickly extinguished when Musk’s next target became the Prime Minister. Musk issued a series of accusations towards Keir Starmer including not calling for a government inquiry into grooming gangs. He also accused former Labour PM, Gordon Brown of “an unforgivable crime”, called the Liberal Democrat Leader, Ed Davey a ‘snivelling cretin’ and posted, suggesting that “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”  

This level of hyperbole could be at first mistaken for a parody account, but it isn’t only the UK taking the brunt. 

In Germany, Musk recently endorsed the hard right political party the AFD in upcoming elections this Spring and is due to interview its leader, Alice Weidel on X this Thursday. 

In Norway, the Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store has criticised Elon Musk for intervening in elections to be held there this Autumn.  

In France, President Macron yesterday added his voice to other European leaders criticising Musk’s intervention in European politics.     

At the weekend, Elon arranged for the Italian PM, Giorgia Meloni to meet Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago. Italy is in talks to agree a $1.6 billion contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. At the end of last year, the Italian President, Sergio Mattarella told the billionaire to stay out of Italy’s domestic affairs after the courts blocked a plan to resettle migrants in Albania. 

Musk is quickly turning into a pantomime villain and trying to understand why he’s intervening in such a high-profile and controversial manner is keeping newspaper columnists very busy. 

Some are arguing that it's all part of a distraction technique designed to shift the focus away from the internal “MAGA” row around H-1B visas (a foreign worker visa in the US allowing skilled workers to enter into certain industries) or perhaps other forces are at play.

The question is, can or will this level of volatile activity continue once Donald Trump is in the White House and crucially, for the rest of the world, does pick a fight with Mr Musk mean picking a fight with the new US President? 

With Bloomberg reporting on a rare alliance between Labour, Reform and the Conservatives in calling for the Trump administration to rethink his relationship with Musk, it’s unclear if the converging dynamic can continue on this trajectory. 

If Musk is to continue, what does this say about the new rules of international politics and how 2025 and beyond will play out?