MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In a post today on X, Elon Musk called the government of Britain tyrannical. Britain - key U.S. ally, Britain. Musk also called for the prime minister there to be imprisoned. Musk's timeline has been filled with vitriol for the United Kingdom in recent days, which has left many Britons asking, why? And what might this portend for U.S. policy with Musk slated for a job in the incoming White House? Well, let's go to Britain to ask those questions. NPR's Lauren Frayer is in London. Hi there.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: OK, tell me more about Elon Musk, world's richest man. What has he been saying about the U.K.?
FRAYER: Here's a smattering of his posts from X, today alone.
(Reading) Starmer is utterly despicable.
That's a reference to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
(Reading) America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.
That's a tweet that's actually pinned to his profile right now. There's a lot on that timeline today about child rape, accusing U.K. officials of not doing enough to protect children. In recent days, he's called a U.K. cabinet minister an "evil witch and a rape genocide apologist." That is a quote.
KELLY: Lauren, why?
FRAYER: Yeah, so I asked Elon Musk for an interview. He hasn't replied. I will get back to you if he does. But he has apparently become fixated on a child sex abuse scandal that happened in northern England more than a decade ago, in which gangs of mostly British Pakistani men were convicted of grooming mostly white British girls. And the far right really seized upon this - accused U.K. politicians of covering up this gang scandal out of fear of appearing racist.
Today, Musk tweeted the words, prison for Starmer, because Starmer was a top prosecutor at the time of that scandal. Now Starmer denies any coverup. In fact, he was one of the prosecutors who expedited trials in this scandal. Sunder Katwala is the director of a nonpartisan think tank here called British Future. And I just asked him, like, what do you make of this sudden interest from Elon Musk?
SUNDER KATWALA: Whether it's a strategy or whether it's sort of impulsive insomniac late-night tweeting, he's obviously become very seized by the grooming gang scandal. I think he's probably heard about it in the last few weeks and has his own quite skewed, slightly radicalized view of what happened, and he's angry. His answer is to try and bring down the government of the United Kingdom.
FRAYER: Now, Katwala says this isn't just some rich guy with 210-plus million followers tweeting about this. This is now an official with the incoming Trump administration who may suddenly feel like he has a mandate for global affairs. He's also been tweeting support for far-right anti-immigrant parties in Germany and elsewhere, support that runs counter to official U.S. policy.
KELLY: OK, so that is what Elon Musk is saying and tweeting. What is the government there in Britain saying in response?
FRAYER: So Prime Minister Starmer's strategy had been to ignore this as trolling. But today he was giving a press conference about something unrelated - about reforming the health service. And he ended up just being dominated by questions about this. And now this grooming scandal is back in the news, you know, a decade-plus later. Starmer defended his record as a public prosecutor back then, and he really lashed out at Musk without naming him.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible, they're not interested in victims. They're interested in themselves.
FRAYER: Starmer also defended the government minister whom Musk had called an evil witch. Her name is Jess Phillips. She got death threats after that. Starmer called those threats poison of the far-right that have really crossed a line. Now, this isn't the first time, though, that Musk has publicly criticized the U.K. prime minister.
KELLY: Oh, what else has he said?
FRAYER: So Musk has used the hashtag #TwoTierKeir, accusing Starmer of two-tier policing, which is totally unsubstantiated, but basically means harsher punishments for far-right protesters rather than pro-Palestinian or Black Lives Matter protesters. He's also endorsed a post recently calling for the king to remove Starmer from power, which is something the monarch is not allowed to do.
KELLY: Well, this prompts questions about the broader relationship. Could this hurt relations between the U.S. and Britain?
FRAYER: I mean, the U.K. is one of America's closest allies, and it's really, really rare, as you know, for an incoming administration official to say stuff like this. And Katwala, the think tank director, says he thinks Musk is really freelancing on this, that he's not delivering messages that have been approved by President-elect Donald Trump. Trump and Starmer had lunch in New York this past fall. They both said they had a fine meeting. They look forward to working together on what they've called a special relationship. But Trump also has a record of provocative tweets. So, you know, stay tuned.
KELLY: NPR's Lauren Frayer in London. Thank you.
FRAYER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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