Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk has this week been accused of fanning the flames of hate by Britain’s prime minister Sir Keir Starmer after he said the UK, which has been consumed by far-right violence, was on the brink of ‘civil war.’
This certainly isn’t the first time he has dived head-first into culture wars. Since taking over Twitter, which he rebranded to X, in October 2023, he has engaged in a vast range of issues, from transgender children to the role of immigration.
His aim in taking over X was to make sure it was a forum for unmitigated free speech, and for it to live up to its unofficial title of ‘Global Town Square’, ensuring that the marketplace of ideas was allowed to thrive with no intervention.
For what it’s worth, he has stuck to his new ideological guns, bringing firebrands Donald Trump, Kanye West, Katie Hopkins, Tommy Robinson, Andrew Tate and Alex Jones back in the space of a few months at the end of 2023.
But even he has been forced to admit his mistakes, admitting last year that it was ‘foolish’ to have agreed with an anti-Semitic post that falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people by claiming the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory was ‘the actual truth.’
For someone who hedged his political bets, donating to both Democrats and Republicans in equal measure and claiming at a 2015 Vanity Fair party he ‘preferred to stay out of politics’, his changing views over the last few years has been remarkable.
Now, he has fully backed Republican candidate Donald Trump, and is even planning on interviewing him on Monday.
MailOnline takes a look at how the views of the sometimes-unpredictable, forever-opinionated emerald mine heir have shifted.
Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk (pictured) has this week been accused of fanning the flames of hate by Britain’s prime minister Sir Keir Starmer
This certainly isn’t the first time he has dived head-first into culture wars
He said that ‘civil war’ in the UK was ‘inevitable’
Transgender people
Musk has been very happy to publicly speak about his problems with transgender people, in particular his own daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, called Xavier Musk at birth.
The pair’s increasingly acrimonious public row was first thrown into the spotlight two years ago when Vivian, now 20, in a court filing declared she ‘no longer wishes to be related’ to her father and legally changed both her name and gender.
In a July interview with controversial psychologist and philosopher Jordan Peterson, he claimed he was ‘tricked’ by the ‘ woke mind virus’ into allowing her to legally change her gender.
Deadnaming her, he said: ‘I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier.’
Wilson, pictured here, described the Tesla CEO as not being christian, claimed he didn’t care about climate change and was lying about his Mars colonization program
‘This was really before I had any understanding of what was going on, and we had COVID going on, so there was a lot of confusion. And I was told Xavier might commit suicide,’ Musk added.
This week, Vivian hit back by accusing her estranged father of lying about being Christian, claimed he didn’t care about climate change and was that he was lying about his Mars colonization program.
She also called him out over a number of discrimination cases filed against the SpaceX boss and claimed he once described Arabic as ‘the language of the enemy’.
Wilson said: ‘I understand your new angle is this ‘western values/Christian family man’ thing but it’s such a weird choice.’
Immigration
Immigration is another issue Musk has weighed in on, particularly when it comes to how it affects Western nations like the UK and the US.
The world’s richest man, who has almost 193million followers on X, has made more than 30 comments about immigration, crime, policing and politics in the UK since the Southport stabbings last Monday.
Even before this week, he has been convinced that Britain and mainland Europe are on the brink of civil war as a result of immigration.
For months the X owner has repeatedly used his platform to share videos of disorder in Britain, Germany and other European countries and warn his 196million followers of a ‘brewing’ battle, especially over mass immigration and open borders.
His earliest warning appears to have been on October 10 last year, in response to a tweet relating to a ‘lack of sensible immigration policy’ on the continent.
Musk replied: ‘If current trends continue, civil war in Europe is inevitable’.
Downing Street rebuked Elon Musk, the owner of X, for using his platform to claim that ‘civil war is inevitable’ – so the billionaire has hit back again
Civil war has been a common phrase used by Musk
On October 20 he then shared a video of rioting in Germany, apparently in relation to conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine.
‘Europe is trending towards civil war’, he wrote.
Later that day he shared a video of daylight fighting between rioters and police in Berlin, declaring: ‘Europe is headed for civil war’.
Then on November 13 he shared a video of fighting in London after Armistice Day was severely disrupted by a series of protests and counter-protests across the capital.
‘Europe appears to be heading for civil war’, he said.
He used the same ‘civil war’ phrase repeatedly in the coming months.
His critics have accused of stoking tensions in communities concerned about the levels of migration.
But his supporters have said that he is raising important issues in the UK and Europe – pointing out that he has also been tweeting about the ongoing political disorder in Bangladesh and Venezuela.
He is also a proponent of the idea that the US has too many immigrants.
In March, he said Joe Biden’s government was ‘importing voters and creating a national security threat’ for secretly allowing illegal immigrants in the country.
‘It is highly probable that the groundwork is being laid for something far worse than 9/11. Just a matter of time,’ Musk said as he reposted a story from DailyMail.com.
Global population
The PayPal co-founder has long been warning of population decline.
In 2017, he said that the number of people on Earth is ‘accelerating towards collapse but few seem to notice or care’.
In 2021 he warned that civilisation is ‘going to crumble’ if people don’t have more children.
And in 2022 he described himself as ‘always banging the baby drum’, warning that once the birth rate starts to fall ‘it accelerates’.
He has pointed to a downturn in Japan’s population as evidence for his concerns, claiming the nation would ‘flat-out disappear’ if the worrying trend continues. And Musk warned Italy ‘will have no people’ if its low birth rate continues.
An often-cited Lancet study claimed that dozens of countries — including Japan, Spain and Portugal — are set to see their population half by 2100. Washington University academics, behind the calculations, warned that nations should ready themselves to adapt to the changing population structures.
Pictured: Musk stands with then-fiance Talulah Riley and his twin sons Griffith (left) and Xavier right at Nasdaq’s opening bel to celebrate Tesla’s initial public offering on June 29, 2010 in New York. He has five children with ex-wife Justine Musk and a son with ex-girlfriend Grimes
In a conversation with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley last month, Musk said: ‘A lot of people are under the impression that the current number of humans is unsustainable on the planet.
‘That is totally untrue. The population density is actually quite low.’
Playing his part in the fight against declining populations, the South African billionaire has fathered a reported 12 children over last 22 years.
He had his kids with three different women, Canadian author Justine Wilson, the mother of Vivian, musician Grimes and his employee, Shivon Zilis. His youngest child, with Zilis, was born in 2024.
Ketamine use
His reported ketamine use is actually one of the few things he prefers to keep private.
He told his friends in 2023 that he was taking the drug, known for its psychedelic effects, to manage depression.
Musk is said to have told people he microdoses ketamine for depression and takes full doses while at parties.
He tweeted shortly after the information leaked: ‘Depression is overdiagnosed in the US, but for some people it really is a brain chemistry issue.
‘But zombifying people with SSRIs for sure happens way too much. From what I’ve seen with friends, ketamine taken occasionally is a better option.’
But this year, it was reported that Musk was told to go to rehab by concerned friends amid their fears that his drug use was spiraling.
Musk smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan podcast
The Tesla magnate, 52, was asked to go to Larry Ellison’s Hawaiian island to ‘dry out’ from the drugs around the winter of 2022, when other friends had expressed their worry
Not only were his associates and friends concerned over his consumption of drugs, but they also felt like they had an expectation to also take illegal substances ‘because they think refraining could upset the billionaire’
The Tesla magnate, 52, was asked to go to billionaire Larry Ellison’s Hawaiian island to ‘dry out’ from the drugs around the winter of 2022, when other friends had also expressed their worry.
According to the Wall Street Journal, some friends asked Musk to go to rehab in the months after his $44 billion Twitter acquisition in October 2022.
The help from Ellison – who is the world’s fourth richest man and owns the island of Lanaʻi – and his offer came around the same time Musk allegedly attended a party in the Hollywood Hills where he consumed a liquid form of ecstasy from a water bottle.
His security cleared the room before Musk took the drug, the WSJ reports.
Not only were his associates and friends concerned over his consumption of drugs, but they also felt like they had an expectation to also take illegal substances ‘because they think refraining could upset the billionaire.’
This follows a report last month from the WSJ that Musk was allegedly taking illegal drugs including ecstasy and cocaine, a lifestyle choice that was concerning his executives and board members at this companies.
Shortly after this news broke, he was cagey when asked about his drug use by Don Lemon, whose comeback show on X was canned following the interview.
When quizzed over his prescription ketamine use, Musk appeared to take offense to Lemon’s questioning and said it is ‘pretty private to ask somebody about a medical prescription.’
Elon Musk, 52, announced he was moving Space X and X out of California in favor of the Lone Star state
He cited California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to sign a controversial bill that bans California school districts from notifying parents if their child is transgender as the ‘final straw’
He said SpaceX will now move its headquarters from Hawthorne, Calif. to Starbase, Texas
Musk said he had previously spoken to the California governor about his woke policies, warning that it may force businesses to leave the state
Anti-woke
It’s no secret that Musk has never been a fan of wokeness. Just last month, he announced he was moving both SpaceX and X headquarters out of California and into Texas over the liberal state’s new gender identity laws.
He said at the time that California governor Gavin Newsom’s signing of a law that bans California school districts from notifying parents if their child is transgender was ‘the final straw.’
‘Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California to Starbase, Texas,’ he wrote on X.
‘I did make it clear to Gov. Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.’
Musk later added that the social media site will also be moving its headquarters from San Francisco to Austin, saying he has ‘had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building.’
He went on to suggest ‘many will follow’ and noted in a follow-up post that ‘Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital publicly voiced his support for Trump six weeks ago.
‘Silicon Valley has shifted,’ Musk said.
Latest advertising row
While Silicon Valley may have shifted, the money behind tech giants like X doesn’t appear to have received the memo.
A slew of companies, including Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted, left the site over concerns that their adverts would appear alongside the growing hate speech on the site.
X, the social media company he bought in October 2022, this week filed a lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted for allegedly orchestrating what its CEO Linda Yaccarino called a ‘systematic illegal boycott.’
Musk for his part posted about the lawsuit on X on Tuesday, saying ‘now it is war’ after two years of being nice and ‘getting nothing but empty words.’
Musk, 53, (pictured, right) told The New York Times DealBook Summit in November 2023: ‘Don’t advertise. If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f— yourself’
X CEO Linda Yaccarino (pictured) said advertisers were engaged in a a ‘systematic illegal boycott.’
Musk posted about the lawsuit on X on Tuesday, saying ‘now it is war’
But his lawsuit comes just nine months after he told fleeing advertisers to ‘go f*** yourself’ in a bizarre tirade at a major business conference.
Musk, 53, told The New York Times DealBook Summit in November 2023: ‘Don’t advertise. If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f— yourself.’
Referring to Bob Iger, the Disney CEO who had previously talked about pulling advertising from X, Musk said: ‘Go f— yourself, is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, don’t advertise.’
Despite this, he also admitted that an advertiser boycott would seriously damage X’s business prospects.
‘What this advertising boycott is going to do is, it is going to kill the company’, he moaned.
‘And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company’, Musk added.
