Elon Musk’s support of the German far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, while making statements that the UK’s Nigel Farage is not right-wing enough, is “insane s***,” said Bill Gates, according to reports over the past week.
Gates stated that Musk’s interference in elections and politics in Europe makes him guilty of “overreach,” adding that “I think in the US, foreigners aren’t allowed to give money; other countries maybe should adopt safeguards to make sure super-rich foreigners aren’t distorting their elections,” according to The Guardian.
Gates’ criticisms come amid an ongoing scandal with Musk appearing at an AfD election rally and making gestures at President Donald Trump’s inauguration that some have alleged were Nazi salutes, although Musk denies this.
Regardless, “if someone is super-smart, and he is, they should think how they can help out. But this is populist stirring,” Gates stated, according to The Guardian.
Gates also said, “It’s really insane that he [Musk] can destabilize the political situations in countries.”
YouGov found negative views towards Musk
Some 2200 British adults and 2200 German adults were surveyed regarding Musk’s influence by YouGov, who published the results on January 17.
YouGov found that 73% of Germans and 69% of Brits found it unacceptable that Musk was trying to influence politics in their nation.
Further results published by YouGov found that 71% of those surveyed had “unfavorable” views toward Musk and that 63% felt he had little to no knowledge of their political landscape.
Approximately half of those surveyed by YouGov found that the best response to Musk’s alleged interference is to ignore him.