Elon's "Mask-Off" Moment

Billionaire Openly Endorses Far-Right “Alternative für Deutschland”

On December 20th Elon Musk tweeted “Only the AfD can save Germany” (“Alternative für Deutschland”, AfD) and shared a video from far-right activist Naomi Seibt. When he received pushback from his endorsement of the AfD, Musk would then make the bizarre claim that the party’s platform was identical to the Obama-era Democratic party.

Hours later an AfD supporter drove a car into a Christmas market in the German town of Magdeburg. Musk would again tweet “Only AfD can save Germany”.

The AfD is a far-right populist party that has seen gradual growth in membership and political representation over the past decade. Once considered a fringe party within German politics, the AfD has achieved electoral success in local parliamentary elections in Germany and holds roughly 10% of the seats in the German Bundestag. The party is known for its staunch opposition to immigration, repeated criticism of the European Union, and broad alignment with Russian political interests in Europe. Promotion and cooperation with the AfD is a focal point of the MAGA world’s vision with Europe. Former Ambassador to Germany and incoming Special Missions Envoy Richard Grenell has been a historic ally of the party and claimed that his role as ambassador was to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe”. Grenell’s focus on the group while serving as ambassador to Germany led to backlash from the German public and press.

The AfD maintains close ties with similar far-right and populist parties in the European Parliament through AfD’s participation in the “Identity and Democracy” parliamentary coalition. The AfD would later be expelled from this grouping after Maximilian Krah, one of the party’s most prominent members, claimed that not all SS officers were war criminals. Krah would also face accusations of receiving funds from both China and Russia in connection to his work in the European Parliament.

It’s no surprise that Elon would support a party like AfD. While Elon claimed that he didn’t know the AfD from “a hole in the ground” a little over a year ago, there’s a growing alignment between the positions of the AfD and the opinions expressed and routinely platformed by Elon Musk. However, it’s crucial that Americans take a wider view of this situation and consider the weight of this endorsement: an oligarch with a mandate to decimate the federal government has openly endorsed a political party that faces accusations of collaboration from China and Russia and historical revisionism towards Nazi Germany. This endorsement comes as Elon operates one of the largest social media networks in the world and serves as one of the largest contractors for the US military - a position which he has already used to unilaterally intervene in Russia’s favor in the war in Ukraine and possibly conduct diplomacy on behalf of the US government outside of official channels. Even if the AfD remains unpopular among German voters, the party now has political legitimacy and platforming that comes with the endorsement of the world’s richest man.

A shadow has been cast over the next four years of American-European relations. As Europe grapples with the erratic positions of the incoming administration, we can expect that Trump and his advisors will look to parties like the AfD as allies on the continent. Rather than working with our European allies, Trump’s second administration will likely focus on repeating Grenell’s tactic of cultivating ties with fringe elements of the European right. The goal of this strategy wouldn’t be to build deeper ties with national governments or the regional structures of the EU, but instead warp politics across Europe by platforming far-right parties. By pursuing this strategy Trump, Elon, and the rest of the MAGA world would advance their reactionary ideological interests and fracture the continent by legitimizing far-right parties that are dedicated to undoing the political structures of post-war Europe. If realized, this vision would undo 70 years of transatlantic cooperation, plunge the continent into chaos, and elevate political forces whose positions echo the darkest chapter of European history.