As Elon Musk Embraces the Far Right, Some of Its Leaders Reject Him

When Laura Loomerfar-right activist who regained control of her Twitter account in late 2022, she knew who to credit for her recovery.

“Thank you, Elon!” she wrote Elon Musk, who recently bought the social network. In another mailLoomer, who was kicked off the platform in 2018 for writing an anti-Muslim message, praised Musk’s commitment to “free speech.”

Ms. Loomer now shares a different opinion about Mr. Musk. She and a group of prominent right-wing figures, many of whom rose to prominence on the platform renamed X, have increasingly expressed alarm about Musk’s influence over President-elect Donald Trump and what they characterize as his willingness to silence critics on his social network. .

In addition to Ms. Loomer, high-profile conservatives including Charlie Kirk and Stephen K. Bannon have begun speaking out against Mr. Musk and his policy positions. Batya Ungar-Sargon, the conservative editor of Newsweek magazine, recently called Musk a “jerk” who censors opponents. Mike Davis, a lawyer close to Trump, told Mr. Musk on social media to “stay in your lane.”

Their criticism followed moves by X to suspend or otherwise restrict dozens of accounts that raised concerns about Mr. Musk and blocked links to articles about him, citing terms of service violations. Over the weekend, Musk drew further outrage from conservatives for using his X account to attack Nigel Farage, a Trump ally and head of Britain’s far-right Reform UK party.

Musk, 53, has quickly evaporated some of the goodwill he built with Trump supporters after vigorously campaigning for the Republican presidential nominee last year. Some right-wing figures who supported Musk’s foray into Republican politics now say they feel betrayed and are concerned that their agenda could be sidelined in favor of his own.

“As a loyal supporter of President Trump, I support him enough to sound the alarm about what is becoming a liability,” Ms. Loomer said in an interview. Ms Loomer, whose X account was temporarily suspended last month after she criticized Musk’s views on immigrationadded: “It appears you’re not allowed to ask Elon questions, and the looming question is: Is Donald Trump going to intervene before it creates a crisis for his administration?”

Mr. Musk and X did not respond to requests for comment. On Tuesday, Trump said Musk had “said some negative things” about politicians in Europe (the president-elect did not name Farage) but was “doing a good job.”

Musk’s differences with some on the far right are particularly noticeable as he increasingly supports more radical parties and figures around the world, including in Germany, where he supported a political party with ties to neo-Nazis and plans to host a livestream with one of its leaders on Thursday. Some Trump fans, such as Alex Jones, founder of the conspiracy theory site Infowars, still support Musk and say any dissent is aimed at undermining the new administration.

Still, the rift raises questions about whether billionaires and Trump’s right-wing supporters are convenient allies. In some ways, Mr. Musk became a target for the principles he stood for on X, allowing Ms. Loomer and others who were banned from the platform to return.

“Elon Musk’s suppression of speech on X is nothing new, and claims of ‘free speech absolutism’ have always been performative,” said Evelyn Dweck, a professor at Stanford Law School who studies the regulation of online expression. “It’s especially poetic that these accusations come from someone like Loomer, whose account reinstatement supposedly symbolized the dawn of a new era on Twitter.”

Ms. LoomerThe two-time Republican congressional candidate, who called Islam a “cancer,” broke up with Musk days before Christmas after posting on X about her dissatisfaction with Sriram Krishnan, the Indian-American venture capitalist Trump has chosen as his running mate. consultations on artificial intelligence. She said Mr. Krishnan supported expanding the use of H-1B visas to attract skilled foreign workers to American companies, which she condemned.

Mr Musk, who has used visas to hire workers for his companies, including Tesla, defended the program as a way to attract the best talent from around the world. “I will go to war over this issue, the like of which you cannot understand,” he said. said in X December 27.

As the dispute escalated, Ms. Loomer and Mr. Bannon portrayed Mr. Musk’s views on foreign workers as an affront to Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again stance. They said Mr Musk was committed to his business interests, including Tesla’s connections to Chinaand questioned whether it was appropriate for someone to have such financial influence over their party. Mr. Musk spent over 250 million dollars help Mr. Trump win the election.

Mr. Musk was “addicted to the adoration he received from rallies leading up to Election Day,” Mr. Bannon said in a report to The New York Times. “But it quickly turned into ridicule when MAGA saw that he thought they were lazy and mediocre.”

On December 26, X suspended Ms. Loomer’s account for 12 hours. In messages to Ms. Loomer, X said she violated her terms of service by posting an image from the Federal Election Commission website that included home addresses of political donors. X prohibits the disclosure of certain personal information without the individual’s permission, even if it may be obtained publicly.

Without further explanation, X also removed Ms. Loomer’s checkmark, which X users pay for so their accounts can increase engagement and, in some cases, so they can get a share of ad revenue.

That same day, Preston Parra, chairman of the conservative PAC, a political action committee created to support Trump’s policies, discovered that his X account had also lost its checkmark.

He and Ms. Loomer were among more than 50 members of a group on X associated with a conservative PAC, many of whom blasted H-1B or Mr. Musk. Each member’s account had a tick missing, Mr Parra said, indicating it was a “coordinated” move.

“I voted for Trump—I didn’t vote for Elon,” he said in an interview, adding that many of the boxes were reinstated over the weekend. Ms. Loomer said her home was restored on Monday.

Anastasia Maria Lupis, a Danish doctor with more than 1.3 million followers on X who called immigrants “terrorists,” said her account also lost the tick on Dec. 30 after she criticized H-1B visas and Mr. Musk .

On Monday, she wrote that she would sue H. Musk “acts as the great savior of free speech,” Dr. Lupis said in his post, but bases decisions only on “his selfish ambitions for money and power.” »

In a report to The Times, Dr. Lupis said there was “no good reason for what they did to me,” adding that “what has been happening here in recent weeks is terrible.”

Over the weekend, Mr. Musk faced fresh criticism for censorship when X blocked links to an investigative article by the conservative British publication The Spectator about the X account, which some said Mr. Musk secretly controlled. The article suggested that the @AdrianDittmann account was run by a man from Fiji.

On Sunday, X blocked the accounts of the article’s author and two researchers who contributed to it. X identified the article as “potentially harmful,” and messages sent to the journalist and researchers showed that X said he had broken rules about disclosing people’s personal information.

X has faced accusations of opposing free speech and actions similar to the site’s previous management, which blocked a New York Post story about Hunter Biden before the 2020 election.

“That’s What Old Twitter Did to the New York Post” wrote Stephen L. Miller, right-wing commentator.

Matt McDonald, US editor-in-chief of The Spectator, said there was irony in Musk’s actions, especially as he was “turning the world upside down in the name of free speech.”

“X may not be the free speech paradise that its more ardent fans believe it to be,” Mr. MacDonald said in a statement.

Mr Musk attacked Mr Farage after the politician spoke out against Musk’s support Tommy Robinsonan anti-immigration agitator with several criminal convictions who is currently in prison for contempt of court.

“The Reform Party needs a new leader,” Musk tweeted on Sunday. “Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”

Farage told news outlets over the weekend that he has a good relationship with Musk but hinted at some differences. A spokeswoman for Mr Farage did not immediately comment.

Mr. Musk’s comments about Mr. Farage have angered Mr. Bannon and others, who see the Briton as perhaps the best way to pursue populist politics in this country.

“Nigel Farage is the greatest living Englishman who has fought for 20 years to restore his country’s sober sovereignty,” Mr Bannon said in his message.

Rahim Kassam, a former adviser to Mr Farage and editor of The National Pulse, a right-wing US news outlet, responded to Mr Musk more succinctly.

“You’re an idiot,” he wrote on X using an expletive.