How We Fell into Elon Musk’s Trap*

Elon Musk conducted an “interview” with Donald Trump that clearly showed how he is transforming X into a means for promoting nationalist populism. But the old Twitter is now so powerful that almost no one can afford to avoid it.

Elon Musk’s “interview” with Donald Trump, broadcast early Tuesday morning in Poland, at times duly recalled the bygone days of communism. The men brown-nosed each other. “You are the path to prosperity. And Kamala is the opposite,” said Musk, the founder of Tesla and someone who once called the Democratic candidate a “communist.”

Musk also didn’t bat an eye when Trump uttered the most absurd nonsense, including that if he were to lose the November election, 60 million illegal immigrants would enter the United States or that the rise in ocean levels caused by global warming is a good thing because it would increase access to … the beach.

Elon Musk’s Evolution to the Far Right

The interview is part of Musk’s broader embrace of the far right. Two years ago, he compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler. Late last year, he unblocked the X account of far right activist Tommy Robinson, a key organizer of racist demonstrations in the U.K. this summer.

“Civil war is inevitable,” Musk said of the protests in England, calling Britain’s courts a “woke Stasi.” Brazilian authorities previously accused Musk of involving X in an attack on the country’s parliament since the billionaire remains close to far right former President Jair Bolsonaro. Among the most controversial actions associated with Musk’s social network platform was unblocking the account of Alex Jones, an extremist activist convicted and ordered to pay $1.5 billion in fines for harassing the families of 20 children and six teachers killed in a school shooting. There are many more examples.

The X owner’s attitude is all the more controversial because when it comes to his business interests, he maintains surprising restraint with regard to the world’s most powerful leaders including Recep Tayip Erdoğan of Turkey and Xi Jinping of China. But despite his close ties to Javier Milei and Benjamin Netanyahu, it is also due to these same business interests that major liberal politicians led by Emmanuel Macron continue to receive him.

Is It Worth Staying on X/Twitter Nowadays?

Before the “interview” with Trump was broadcast, Commissioner Thierry Breton, the EU’s digital regulator, warned Musk that the program could be suspended in Europe if he did not try to moderate the conversation with Trump in the event of hate speech or race baiting. However, the French commissioner posted his warning on … X, reaching 67 million viewers. Similarly, President Joe Biden announced his decision to withdraw from running for a second term on the same social media platform.

Given that X’s position in a world of idea exchange has become so strong, few can afford to disconnect from it nowadays. In response to Musk’s attacks, some elected members of Parliament from the Labor Party canceled their accounts, although Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not.

The dilemma of how to respond to Musk is well illustrated by the case of Radosław Sikorski. The Polish foreign affairs minister worked for years to build an army of over 1.2 million followers. But his wife, Anne Applebaum, not without reason, has long warned of the danger that Trump poses to democracy in America and in the West more broadly. What should now guide Sikorski’s decision to stay on X or not? At the very least, there should be no pretending that everything is fine with Musk and his site.

*Editor’s note: The original Polish version of this article is available with a paid subscription.