The South African-born multi-billionaire has taken a keen interest in British politics, claiming that ‘revolutionary government change’ was needed
The world’s first trillionaire has taken a particular interest in British politics in recent years. Elon Musk has routinely tweeted out his less-than-flattering views of the UK, such as claiming “civil war” and “violence” is coming due to immigration.
But his statements unravelled in the face of a humiliating interview this week with The Economist’s editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes.
Challenging Musk’s claim that civil war in Britain was “inevitable,” Ms Beddoes asked: “When were you last in the UK?” To which the SpaceX boss evasively replied: “A few years ago.”
Pointing out that she lives in London, Ms Beddoes countered: “The numbers disprove what you say. London is a much safer city than any city in the United States. Violent crime in the UK is not where you think it is, in fact it’s coming down.
Pointing out that Musk’s claims were dangerous because he has so many followers on social media, she added: “You have painted Europe and the UK as overrun with terrifying Muslim immigrants, there’s rape on every corner, there’s civilisational destruction.”
Musk, 55, denied having said anything of the sort, but carried on to say: “If you have a large, and rapidly-growing group of people who’s beliefs are antithetical to Western beliefs, at some point there ill be a reckoning.”
This unnamed group would try to implement their views, he added, and those who opposed them would push back, sparking a civil war. “Obviously, this is the trend,” he claimed.
While he’s last known to have visited the UK in 202,3 Musk did make an appearance via video link at Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally in September last year.
As riot police were beaten and pelted with flares and bottles by Robinson’s supporters, Must exhorted them to rise up against the government, saying: “We must have revolutionary government change for that to occur. And this is not ordinary-course-of-business sort of stuff.
“This really requires everyone to sort of marshal the people, to take charge and reform the government, and make sure the government is for the people, by the people.”
He added: “I really think that there’s got to be a change of government in Britain. You can’t – we don’t have another four years, or whenever the next election is, it’s too long.
“Something’s got to be done. There’s got to be a dissolution of parliament and a new vote held.”
When Ms Beddoes accused him of wildly exaggerating the extent of social unrest in the UK, Musk accused her of living a “cloistered existence” that blinded her to the existence of these trends, and offered to go on a tour of Britain with her to prove his point.
When she again reminded him that she lived in the UK, Musk insisted that he had been to the UK “literally a hundred times”. Asked when the last time was, he said: “It’s literally a few years ago.”
Ms Beddoes reiterated that Musk’s pronouncements about the UK were reckless, because he has such a disproportionately large influence on public opinion in the US. She explained: “So many Americans I come across think London’s such a dangerous place – there are grooming gangs everywhere, there’s violence everywhere. This is a picture that people get from thing that you post, or are posted on X.”
For example, she added, Musk had thrown his support behind dystopian action movie Citizen Vigilante which stars controversial American actor Armie Hammer as a former US Army officer who is on a campaign to wipe out criminals in an unidentified European city.
Ms Beddoes explained: “It paints a dystopian picture of Europe and it glorified vigilante violence. It glorified the murder of a Muslim immigrant family”
The South African-born businessman rejected suggestions that his beliefs were rooted in racism, saying: “If you look at the people that are employed at my companies, we have senior executives of all races. I don’t think there’s any racism there.”
He did admit, though, that he “got a little too involved in politics, got carried away” when he launched his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) seeking to cut costs on behalf of the Trump administration.
Applying video game logic to public spending, he presided over a vast swathe of layoffs. Over 300,000 federal employees lost their jobs although, according to Randy Erwin, boss of the US National Federation of Federal Employees, little or no money was saved in the long run.
“Good riddance to DOGE, the most damaging government reform effort in the last century,” Erwin wrote after the initiative was wound up. “The fact the Trump administration does not plan to publish a final DOGE report is an admission the entire program was a miserable failure.
“It was so unpopular, and for good reason, that nobody from the administration even wants to talk about it. We cannot let that happen. We must continue to show the damage DOGE did to our government institutions, the federal workforce, and public services the people rely on every day.”
He added: “In reality, DOGE created massive tax waste by firing or putting on paid leave thousands of federal workers for months on end only for them to be reinstated or hired back because they were mission-critical employees.”