Diane Francis
August 29, 2024
News broke this week that Elon Musk has a couple of Russian oligarchs as investors in his “X” Twitter company. They are small shareholders, but his coziness with the Kremlin is nothing new. In 2023, he refused to extend Starlink internet access to Ukraine and prevented a surprise attack on Russian warships after speaking with a Russian “friend”. On August 19, a bloodthirsty warlord, Chechen Republic President Ramzan Kadyrov, thanked Musk online for shipping him a Tesla Cyber truck as a gift. He mounted a machine gun on top and took it for a turn on video. Kadyrov invited Musk to visit and thanked him for providing Starlink service in the war zone to help Russian troops. He said, “Special respect from the fighters!” Musk denied he gave away the truck but habitually meddles in politics everywhere. He has now become one of Donald Trump’s biggest donors, and on August 26, Trump even invited him to join his cabinet “if he has the time for it.”
Musk, when asked by the media about the Chechen Tesla truck, defended himself by saying, “Are you seriously so retarded that you think I donated a Cyber truck to a Russian general? Yet another example of how much the legacy media lies.” Of course, it may have been a prank, but wouldn’t be the first time Musk has played footsie or been a megaphone for despicable characters or causes at home or abroad. Last year, the Ukrainian Starlink incident raised security concerns in Washington, as did a series of tweets Musk made outlining peace proposals that were only beneficial to Putin. A Pentagon official encapsulated how unacceptable all this was. “Elon Musk hasn’t been elected, and no one has decided to give him that power. He has it because of the technology and company he built.”
Elon Musk is a technology genius but a geopolitical loose cannon. The “X” CEO has allowed his platform to sound off on topics such as backing Trump’s campaign, supporting Putin’s patsy, Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela, who has overturned an election, and stoking disinformation that led to racist rioting recently in the UK. British investigative journalist Carole Cadawalladr speculated in The Guardian that “X’s” role in the British riots may be Musk’s “trial run” for a process to help overturn the American election if Trump loses.
Britain’s recent racist riots were incited by an irresponsible “X” platform that propagated hate, incitements to violence, unsubstantiated accusations, libels, and inaccuracies. It is not regulated in Britain or anywhere. Likewise, his spaceflight company, Space X, is unregulated despite exclusive contracts worth billions with the U.S. government. Space X also controls Starlink, which has launched and operates thousands of satellites that provide internet access globally.
In essence, Musk owns the essential planetary infrastructure on which millions depend. He is also more powerful and influential than most nation-states and does as he pleases. He recently endorsed an antisemitic statement on his “X” social media, retweeted conspiracy theories, and used the “F” word on TV against advertisers who objected. He can also make life-and-death
decisions by denying or providing internet service to countries or specific regions, as he demonstrated in Ukraine. Because of his satellite monopoly, governments are unwilling to supervise its content or hold it accountable for damages. The result is that Elon Musk is a law unto himself and has become a political force obsessed with politics.
“Five years ago, Elon Musk mostly tweeted about his companies—plus memes and the occasional bad joke,” wrote The Wall Street Journal. “Today, he posts almost daily about political issues on X, the platform he acquired in 2022, and has thrown his support behind former President Donald Trump’s campaign. Musk posted about 13,000 times this year through the end of July—almost as much as in 2023. That’s about 61 posts daily, compared with nine in 2019.”
That’s a deluge that could choke a democracy or an election. It’s also a danger that has forced some nations to undertake countermeasures. Taiwan, for instance, won’t use Starlink technology to defend its island nation against China because Musk is on good terms with the Chinese government, and it believes he cannot be trusted. He could decide to shut down communications in the event of an invasion attempt. Ironically, China also realized the hazard of dependence on one person, and last year, Musk was required to promise not to deny internet service inside China. But to be secure, Beijing plans to launch 13,000 internet satellites to replace Starlink. The European Union has also set aside $2.6 billion to build a satellite internet system. One expert explained the reason alternative systems are sought. “This is not just one company, but one person. You are completely beholden to his whims and desires.”
Not surprisingly, Musk is courted and lobbied by leaders around the world. He is fawned over by Trump and Putin, as well as investment bankers, oligarchs, tycoons, legacy media, and groupies. He now weighs into policy matters. Last year, he told a Congressional committee that he was convinced Russia would win against Ukraine and that America should stop providing military aid to Ukraine. This summer, he made only one phone call to persuade Donald Trump to make J.D. Vance his Vice Presidential running mate. In return, Trump called Musk “brilliant” and promised to give him a top job should he win. In response, Musk posted on “X” simply that “I am willing to serve.”
He is becoming a global hazard. He uses history’s giant megaphone to sound off on every topic imaginable, even though he is uninformed and uneducated regarding history, current events, psychology, or economics. He controls companies involved in leading-edge technologies such as robotics, neural implants, Artificial Intelligence, rocketry, space travel, and communications. The Ukraine-Starlink incident and UK riots should give pause. “Elon Musk Has Ukraine, and the Future of the World, at His Mercy,” wrote The Moscow Times, a respected independent news outlet. “Capitalism should be subjugated to the needs, democratic will, and security of the people, not the other way around.”
Diane Francis is an expert on Canada, the United States, Canada-US relations, Silicon Valley, future technology, geopolitics, the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Putin, energy, business, and white-collar crime. Always provocative, her direct and forceful writing has established her
international reputation in covering the personalities, trends, and financial backstories that affect companies, individuals, governments and societies. Her popular twitter feed on tech and corruption has more than 240,000 followers around the world. An award-winning columnist, bestselling author, investigative journalist, speaker, and television commentator, she is Editor-at-Large at Canada’s National Post and a columnist for American Interest, Atlantic Council’s Ukraine Alert, and Kyiv Post. . In 1991, Francis became Editor of Canada’s Financial Post, the first woman editor of a national daily newspaper in Canada, a position she held until the paper was sold in 1998. She is the author of ten books, including Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country (2013, featured in a cover story in Foreign Policy), Who Owns Canada Now?: Old Money, New Money and the Future of Canadian Business (2008), and Immigration: The Economic Case (2002).