Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has embraced the far right and fascist forces in the US and abroad. He even gave a fascist salute in a speech following Donald Trump’s inauguration.
This is a sign of the dangers that will accompany Trump in the White House.
Musk threw himself behind Trump’s election campaign. He used his control of social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to boost Trump and his own posts about the election.
Trump has now put Musk in charge of an advisory body called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) set up to launch savage public sector cuts.
But Musk has gone beyond supporting Trump to supporting open fascists.
At the start of this year he backed the German AfD (Alternative for Germany) in the lead-up to German elections, using X to promote them and hosting an extended live interview with their leader Alice Weidel.
The AfD is increasingly dominated by fascists and has risen in the polls on a viciously anti-migrant platform to become Germany’s second most popular party.
At the heart of the AfD are Nazis who want to recreate Hitler’s Third Reich. Bjorn Hocke, the leader of the party in Thuringia, is a fascist who has been fined by German courts for using Nazi slogans.
Musk has also backed British fascist Tommy Robinson and the racist, anti-immigrant Reform UK party.
Nigel Farage, the bigoted leader of Reform UK, spews hate against migrants. But Robinson is even worse. He is an outright Nazi trying to build a violent street movement and a former member of the fascist British National Party. In 2017 he said “militias will be set up” and warned of mass violence aimed at “cleaning out this Islamic problem”.
Serving the rich
Across the globe the political mainstream—whether conservative or Labour-type parties—have overseen attacks on living standards. They have then used racism and bigotry to deflect anger away from themselves towards migrants and minorities, feeding an alarming rise of the far right.
These politics serve his interests of the rich. Such extreme reactionary and pro-capitalist ideas fit well with Musk.
His treatment of his workers has been atrocious. He cut 80 per cent of jobs at Twitter after taking it over and slashed 10 per cent of staff at Space X.
At Tesla he sacked 14,000. Many didn’t know until they turned up at their jobs and their access cards didn’t work.
There has also been a flood of workplace sexual harassment complaints against Musk. SpaceX paid a flight attendant over $400,000 to settle one sexual misconduct claim against him in 2018. The company and Musk also faced a lawsuit by eight former employees who say they were fired for raising concerns about sexual harassment and discrimination.
Musk is also viciously anti-union, once saying, “I disagree with the idea of unions.”
With a track record like this it is no wonder he has turned to the far right who scapegoat migrants, re-direct working class anger and normalise gross inequality, sexism and bigotry.
At the trough
There is also a cynical self-interest at play in Musk’s support for Trump and the far right. By hitching himself to them he gains more political power and influence over government.
Despite his claim to support “small government” Musk and his companies have benefited enormously from government regulations and subsidies.
Tesla received a $751 million low-interest loan from the Department of Energy in 2010. A $12,100 tax credit for EV buyers allowed it to jack up prices and saw Tesla buyers receive billions in subsidies.
Tesla’s biggest boon from government actually comes from its trading of regulatory credits.
Tesla sells these to other car manufacturers who can’t otherwise comply with state and federal regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. Between 2008 and 2019 this raked in around $3.2 billion for the company. SpaceX also depends on government contracts worth billions.
Since Trump won the election Musk’s wealth has jumped by a staggering $103 billion, nearly 25 per cent, according to an estimate by Bloomberg. This is at least partly due to the expectation of favours for his companies from Trump.
Musk isn’t the first major US capitalist to flirt with the far right. Car manufacturer Henry Ford used his national newspaper to promote antisemitism, supported pro-fascist organisations and employed far-right anti-union thugs, even receiving an award from Hitler in 1938.
But despite this, the 1930s in the US saw a massive wave of unionisation, including in the car industry, that helped push back the far right.
Musk is a living, breathing advertisement for why we must resist the far right, racism and capitalism today and build socialist organisation to fight for a better world.
By Adam Adelpour
