Elon Musk reacts to the notion that it is “far right” to support secure borders, safe cities, and sensible spending in an interview with Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of “The Economist.”
ELON MUSK: No, I support the normal people.
BEDDOES: Okay.
MUSK: What you call the far right, falsely.
BEDDOES: You think it’s the normal person? Okay.
MUSK: Yes, it’s just normal people. And here are the principles. And tell me, which of these sound terrible? That we should have secure borders? That we should have safe cities? That we should have sensible spending?
Which of those three are far right fringe? And I would like to just admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense.
Please keep this part in.
BEDDOES: We’ll keep all of this in.
[LAUGHTER]
MUSK: Don’t cut this part.
BEDDOES: Let me push back on that. Let me push back on that.
MUSK: Because it’s nonsense.
BEDDOES: Elon, you have, what is it, close to 250 million followers on X.
MUSK: Yeah.
BEDDOES: You say things like-
MUSK: Popular guy.
BEDDOES: Quote, “Civil war in Britain is inevitable. Just a question of when.”
MUSK: On the current trend, yes.
BEDDOES: I mean, when were you last in the UK?
MUSK: A few years ago.
BEDDOES: Exactly. So, I live there. I’m there the whole time. That is nonsense.
MUSK: You live out a cloistered existence.
BEDDOES: No, I don’t actually. And the numbers also disprove what you say.
MUSK: What numbers?
BEDDOES: All the numbers about – London is a much safer city than any city in the United States. Violent crime in the UK is not where you think it is. In fact, it’s coming down.
You have painted, and because you have so many followers, so many Americans believe it, a kind of view that Europe and the UK are kind of, you know, overrun with terrifying Muslim immigrants. There’s rape on every corner. There’s a sort of civilizational destruction.
MUSK: I haven’t said any of those things. If you have a large and growing, rapidly growing group of people whose beliefs are antithetical to Western beliefs, at some point there will be a reckoning. They will try to implement their views and those who oppose it will oppose it, and that’s what you call civil war. And obviously, this is the trend.
And you absolutely do live in a cloistered existence. And if you’d like, we can go on a tour of Britain.
BEDDOES: Sure.
MUSK: We all can go.
BEDDOES: I’d be very happy to come on a tour of Britain.
MUSK: And you will see for yourself-
BEDDOES: You come see my country that I live in all the time and you haven’t been to a few years ago.
MUSK: I’ve been there literally a hundred times.
BEDDOES: But when was the last time?
MUSK: It’s literally a few years ago.
BEDDOES: You know why this exercises me? Because you have really shaped opinion about the UK. And so many Americans I come across and I have conversations with, and I just had one the other day, along the order of, oh, London’s such a dangerous place.
How can you know? There are sort of grooming gangs everywhere. There’s violence everywhere.
This is a picture that people get from things that you post or that are posted on X. And for example, you’re posting for, what was it, 48 hours of Citizen Vigilante.
MUSK: Yes.
BEDDOES: That film, which paints a dystopian- I’ve watched it.
MUSK: Yes.
BEDDOES: It was not fun. I watched it yesterday. It’s not a very good movie.
But it also paints a dystopian picture of Europe and it glorifies vigilante violence. It glorifies the murdering of a Muslim immigrant family. I honestly think that it is irresponsible for you to put that up on X.
MUSK: I think that it’s a movie and it’s worth watching.
