Elon Musk's Recent Influence in British Politics | Amanpour and Company

In ten days Donald Trump reenters the White House. At his side will be Elon Musk, the world's richest man. In the U.K., Musk has stoked the flames of the far right with misinformation. He has apparently developed a fixation with Britain and a vendetta against the current Prime Minister, Labour's Keir Starmer. In a barrage of posts on X, Musk seems to have only just become aware of a two-decade child sex abuse scandal in which thousands of young British girls were exploited by "grooming gangs" of largely British-Pakistani men. In posting a poll asking if Starmer's "tyrannical" government should be overthrown, Musk has caused a political firestorm, with opposition politicians jumping on his call for another national inquiry. Musk has also thrown his weight behind one of the most dangerous far-right agitators in the U.K. -- Tommy Robinson, who is currently serving a prison sentence. Before the holidays Musk also sought to interfere in Germany's upcoming elections, posting that the only thing that could save Germany is the right-wing extremist party AFD. To discuss all this, longtime tech journalist Kara Swisher and Sunder Katwala, Director of the think tank British Future, join Christiane. Originally aired on January 10, 2025 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Major support for Amanpour and Company is provided by Jim Attwood and Leslie Williams, Candace King Weir, the Sylvia A. and Simon B. Poyta Programming Endowment to Fight Antisemitism, the Leila and Mickey Straus Family Charitable Trust, Mark J. Blechner, the Filomen M. D’Agostino Foundation, Seton J. Melvin, the Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund, Charles Rosenblum, Koo and Patricia Yuen, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg, and Jeffrey Katz and Beth Rogers. Subscribe to the Amanpour and Company channel here: https://bit.ly/2EMIkTJ Subscribe to our daily newsletter to find out who's on each night: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/newsletter/ For more from Amanpour and Company, including full episodes, click here: https://to.pbs.org/2NBFpjf This program is made possible by viewers like you. Please support your local PBS station: http://www.pbs.org/donate Like Amanpour and Company on Facebook: https://bit.ly/2HNx3EF Follow Amanpour and Company on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2HLpjTI Follow Amanpour and Company on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3SaTUhk Watch Amanpour and Company weekdays on PBS (check local listings). Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City. #amanpourpbs