Musk's tweet on Germany's AfD could start a dangerous trend

US president-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of a test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, last month. Reuters

Elon Musk has found a rich seam of worldwide division to work with since he took over the Twitter mines.

When treasure maps used to declare that "X marks the spot", I’m not sure political power was the prize but it is now.

Social media creates new channels of these divisions every day and Mr Musk as the proprietor of X, formerly Twitter, has what is proving to be the most effective force to shape the landscape.

It is important to say that this peculiar mix of Mr Musk’s talents and background is a perfect amalgamation to exploit the seams of the new political scene.

People lay flowers and lit candles in front of the Johannis church close to the Christmas market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, on December 22. AP

When a South African-born serial entrepreneur decided to revive the Maga project this year, he brought not only the powerful X machine, but also a perspective that chimed with the basic Maga grievance of displacement. Mr Musk was practically displaced from his own first country after the rainbow nation took shape in the 1990s and now offers America lessons in holding out against transformational change.

After having helped Donald Trump secure a second term, Mr Musk has in recent weeks seems to want give a shove to Mega (Make Europe Great Again) and Muga (Make UK Great Again).

The tragedy in the town of Magdeburg on Friday gave immediate bite to Mr Musk’s broadcast on X the day before, that only the AfD (the far-right party second placed in the polls) could save Germany.

Never mind that the AfD populists had campaigned against his billion-dollar battery project in Germany. Then came the attack on a Christmas market, allegedly by a Saudi-born doctor who was, among other things, a supporter of the AfD.

Yet the crosscurrents of Taleb A’s views were forged in the rebellion he was carrying out against his own background, religion and culture.

It will be no surprise to anyone that intelligence channels between Saudi Arabia and Germany saw the dangers he posed and Saudi officials warned German police about him. But the idea that he was a dissident granted him wide latitude in the German mind.

Those ignored warnings made headlines after the attack and now frame the public and media reaction to the disaster. Germany mourns Andre Gleissner, the nine year “teddy bear” boy who did no harm to anyone, and four unsuspecting women.

Their loss and the cultural significance of the Christmas market raise the stakes for Germany’s February election.

The AfD can prosecute the argument that a weak state machinery in thrall to a culture of inclusivity was the fundamental cause of the deaths. The basic problem is the origin of the perpetrator and how Germany faces threats brought into its midst. The Magdeburg attack has supercharged the issue of Angela Merkel’s 2015 open-borders policy.

Remember, Mr Trump is promising millions of deportations. And Mr Musk is playing on Mr Trump's idea of America first as well as Europe's open borders. AfD has coined the innocuous-sounding term "remigration" for its deportation policy.

In hosting the UK Reform Party’s Nigel Farage and his treasurer Nick Candy at Mar-a-Lago, under a portrait of a young Mr Trump wearing a Ralph Lauren-style cricket jumper, Mr Musk was open to the possibility of bankrolling the anti-establishment upstart. It is a picture to tell a thousand words.

Reform UK of their leader Nigel Farage (R) and Party treasurer Nick Candy (L) with Elon Musk at Mar-A-Lago, the Florida home of US President Elect Donald Trump, on December 17. PA Photo.

In the UK, Keir Starmer is a relatively new prime minister with a massive majority. But so too was Boris Johnson in 2019 and that majority got wiped away within five years.

Mr Farage is a veteran of tearing up the political script and Mr Musk clearly has ill will towards the UK. It is said his own English-born grandmother would stand up when Queen Elizabeth II was broadcast on South African television. His grandmother hailed from near Stockport, the town that was the focus of the summer’s race riots.

Mr Musk's intervention has seen him cold-shouldered by Team Starmer. The animus between Downing Street and the businessman runs deep and bitter. This is something that augurs well for Mr Farage but not for the UK's relations with the Trump White House.

Mr Musk may be a South African who made his fortune in the US, but he is deeply engaged at an emotional level with the currents of politics and history in the UK – and, by extension, Europe.

The trends in both places challenge the idea of the country in which he grew up, in a way that acts as motivation to back the political outsiders. For those who hold the levers of power, Mr Musk's interest represents an uncomfortable challenge. In the fallout from Magdeburg and Mr Musk’s doubling down on his intervention over the weekend, the consequences of promoting this type of politics are only just being glimpsed.

A force ripping through politics and society has only just started its work and X indeed hits the spot.