Is Elon Musk looking to the UK for his second chance at political influencer stardom?
The Tesla and X CEO was awkwardly dropped from the roster of Donald Trump’s inner circle as his presence wore thin with key members of the Cabinet. Then, an allegedly drug-fueled breakup with the president erupted over the consideration by Congress of the “big, beautiful bill”: a package of legislation outlining GOP budget priorities that was passed through the congressional reconciliation process.
Over the span of several days, the onetime DOGE chief issued a series of increasingly erratic statements about the president, including now-deleted assertions (which reportedly turned out to be correct) that Donald Trump was mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files.
Now, with anti-immigrant sentiment surging in Britain and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government unable to find an effective response to massive protests against “small boat” crossings over the English Channel, it appears Musk is turning to Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party to provide the audience he whittled away in America.
The Tesla billionaire even spoke directly at Robinson’s massive “Unite the Kingdom” rally on Saturday, as tens of thousands hit the streets of London in the largest protest the city has seen since pro-Palestinian demonstrations in 2023.
Musk told Robinson’s fans that he believed Parliament should be dissolved and new elections held across the country. His remarks were condemned by Starmer.
“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,” said Musk. “Something’s got to be done. There’s got to be a dissolution of parliament and a new vote held.”
His interview with Robinson at the event marked Musk’s first public political speaking engagement at any kind of rally since his departure from the White House. During the 2024 election Musk became a fixture at Trump’s rallies as he tried to wriggle his way into Trump’s inner circle. Now, in Britain, he could be pursuing a similar audience and similar goals even if he has no direct ambitions of entering government in the same way he did in the United States.
Some have speculated that Musk’s alliance with the British far-right is a ploy to see the Online Safety Act repealed; Musk, like American politicians of both stripes, is staunchly opposed to the law which critics say forces media companies to censor content. Starmer’s Labour government has defended the merits of the law. Reform UK has pledged to repeal it.
In general, the surge in frequency of Musk’s statements about British politics mirror a trend that has emerged suggesting that the X/Tesla CEO is taking a far more active role in commenting on politics in general. During the final months of the 2024 election, Musk’s Twitter engagement with both UK-focused and German-focused political content ramped up sharply. The trend has continued to accelerate throughout 2025.
With his appearance on Saturday, however, it’s become clear that Musk isn’t satisfied being merely the “troll” which former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz labeled him. Musk is actively devoting signficant energy to boost the platforms of right-wing politicians and movements across the Western world.
One awkward angle of Musk’s fixation with European populist conservatives: his ongoing feud with Farage, the Reform UK leader whom he urged the party’s supporters to replace in January.
Some observers say that the pair’s relationship is a sign of the general lack of seriousness and clumsy nature of Musk’s brand of politicking, most evident earlier in 2025 when his image and perception of his political gamesmanship were credited with costing conservatives a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court — notably the first chance Musk got to prove the strength of his politcal organization without the turnout rocket boost of Donald Trump’s name at the top of the ticket.
“Musk has a very distorted understanding of British politics, and yet he’s got a megaphone,” Robert Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester told The New York Times in January. “When he says this stuff at 3 a.m. on a Sunday night, it disrupts Labour’s whole NHS press conference on Monday.”
Farage commented over the weekend on Musk’s appearance at the Unite the Kingdom rally — suggesting that the two are at the stage of their relationship where criticism and scorn remains (publicly) one sided as the Reform UK leader continues to milk Musk’s spotlight for all its worth.
“Elon and I have a relationship, wouldn’t say a very good one. He’s generally rather rude about me… You know, it would be nice to get some clarification of what fight meant in that context,” Farage said at a press conference.
Farage added: “If the fight that Musk was talking about was about standing up for our rights of free speech, if it was about fighting in elections to overcome the established parties, then that absolutely is the fight that we’re in.”
