LONDON-On the eve of becoming the world's first trillionaire, Elon Musk was fixated on political turmoil an ocean away from SpaceX headquarters.

In one X post, he called the mayor of Belfast a "betrayer of her people." In another, he called a British political leader "a scumbag and a traitor."

And a post from a once-obscure politician named Rupert Lowe-whose nascent far-right party Musk had declared the only hope for salvaging Britain's future-got more than three million views after Musk retweeted it.

The X-storm took place on June 11, in the wake of violent anti-immigration riots in the Northern Ireland capital-and one day before SpaceX's IPO.

For years, Musk has used his social-media megaphone to boost antiestablishment parties outside the U.S., railing against "woke" politics, immigration and tech industry-regulation across Europe, South America and Africa. But no other foreign nation has drawn such frequent, sustained attention from the world's richest man as the U.K., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of 41/2 years' worth of his posts on X.

Musk has twice exceeded 200 monthly posts about British politics and culture wars, though the volume waxes and wanes with the news cycle. In June alone, Musk posted more than 160 times on the topic-over 10% of his posts that month. By July, he was back to his baseline, with just a few dozen tweets.

The South Africa-born entrepreneur regularly frames Britain as a failing nation that is losing its Western identity to mass Muslim immigration. He has been accused of stoking civil unrest in the key U.S. ally, called for ousting a prime minister and embraced the far-right activist known as Tommy Robinson, who was once barred from entering the U.S. for his multiple criminal convictions.

He has also used X to promote Rupert Lowe, the man he says should be Britain's next leader. Before last year the overwhelming majority of Musk's more than 200 million followers likely had never heard of Lowe. For much of his career, the 68-year-old toiled in the backwaters of British politics, railing against mass immigration, the European Union and traditional political parties that largely ignored him.

Overnight, Musk's name-check boosted Lowe's profile in Britain and beyond, providing crucial momentum in Lowe's battle with rival Nigel Farage for control of Britain's right wing. Musk has thrown his support behind Lowe's political party, Restore Britain, which is pushing to deport millions of immigrants.

Despite having just a handful of staffers, the new party is polling at around 5% in the U.K., drawing followers who cite immigration as their top concern and splintering Britain's right-leaning vote.

"I think he's concerned about Britain," Lowe said of Musk in an interview with the Journal. "And we're eternally grateful to him for creating a true free-speech platform."

The Journal analysis shows that Musk's attention has given the already-ascendant Lowe a significant digital boost-a retweet or mention from Musk has more than twice the number of likes on average compared with an unamplified post from the same period. And even Lowe's unboosted posts now get more than double the number of likes and views they did before Musk started mentioning and interacting with him.

Musk's effort to reshape Britain has caused political turmoil, leaving government ministers here at a loss over how to push back without provoking a direct confrontation with the Trump administration, whom Musk has helped bankroll.

In promoting the British far right, Musk appears to have found common ground with a one-time adversary, the comedic actor John Cleese. A frequent Donald Trump critic, the 86-year-old British star of "Monty Python" fame had sharply criticized Musk over his comments about the 2025 U.S. government shutdown. Musk tweeted back: "Senility is tragic to observe." Another time, Musk called Cleese a "retard" in a post responding to the actor's criticism of Farage.

But lately the two have united on X over defending Robinson and supporting Lowe. When Lowe launched his political party this year, Cleese reposted Musk's call to back Restore.

Lowe took note. "You are a true patriot, Elon," he responded.

Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022. Over the next two years, he made a hard turn toward U.S. politics, a Journal analysis of his activity on the platform found, often slamming the media and Democrats' treatment of his companies. Since then he has gone increasingly global, using the platform to boost antiestablishment parties across Europe and rail against "woke" politics, immigration and tech regulation.

Critics say Musk and X amplify extreme views and drown out other voices. "There was clear evidence of multiple occasions where Musk has manipulated information and influenced British politics," says Andy Pryce, who until recently ran a counter-disinformation unit at the U.K. Foreign Office. This, he said, "helped stoke acts of violence in the U.K."

U.K. officials have monitored Musk's posts, alongside those of other X users, for national-security risks, according to people familiar with the matter, but decided not to take any formal action. Officials also mapped his output to see whether foreign state actors, such as Russia, were engaging with the posts and further amplifying them. The results of that inquiry couldn't be learned.

The U.K. government said in a statement that it is ensuring online platforms abide by British law. "The Government's broader counter-disinformation work is focused on identifying coordinated attempts to spread false or misleading information online, not individuals," it said in a statement.

Neither Musk nor his representatives responded to requests for comment.

Before Musk bought Twitter, Robinson-whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon-had been banned from the platform for posts deemed to be "hateful conduct." Musk restored his account in 2023. Robinson has served jail time in the U.K. on charges including assaulting an off-duty police officer, using a false passport to enter the U.S. and mortgage fraud. He has organized large-scale anti-immigration protests across the U.K., some of which have descended into violence.

The two men often trade posts about immigration and a long-running scandal involving the organized, group-based child sexual exploitation of vulnerable girls, many of them in government care, across England over decades. Prominent convictions in some towns involved predominantly British-Pakistani men.

Lowe, Robinson and Musk frequently accuse U.K. officials of playing down crimes against white British girls, referring to the perpetrators as "invaders."

In a brief interview, Robinson declined to respond to detailed questions. "I find it absolutely remarkably insane that journalists are still latching onto something, someone who has given people free speech in this country," he said. "Elon Musk has given a voice to the British public. And that voice has awakened a nation."

Musk and Robinson also joined forces after a mass stabbing of young girls was falsely blamed on a Muslim immigrant, prompting rioters to attack a local mosque with bricks and target hotels housing asylum seekers. Hundreds of people were arrested amid rolling clashes with police.

Musk responded on X that "civil war is inevitable" in Britain because of immigration. Police later said the teenage suspect apprehended was the Welsh-born son of Christian Rwandan immigrants.

"Either: 1. Secure the borders OR 2. Have your head cut off!" Musk commented on X in July of this year in response to a post by Restore of a grainy picture of an asylum seeker who is alleged to have attacked a man with a knife in Belfast.

Liverpool roots

Musk's paternal grandmother came from Liverpool, in northern England, and he has cited his ancestry as central to his interest in the U.K.

"I am of primarily British heritage, British ancestry. I want Britain to be greater than it ever has been," Musk said at a London rally organized by Robinson last September, where he appeared via video link. "And what I see happening is a destruction of Britain."

Lowe wasn't an obvious first choice to lead a populist rescue of the British establishment.

A wealthy former banker, Lowe was for much of his career best known for his turbulent tenure as chairman of Southampton soccer club, which he left in 2009 as the club struggled with mounting debts. Lowe then went on to become an advocate for Britain leaving the European Union. He joined Reform UK, where he won a seat in Parliament. Few outside Westminster knew much about the politician.

Then he caught the attention of Musk on X.

"I have not met Rupert Lowe," Musk tweeted in January 2025, "but his statements online that I have read so far make a lot of sense."

With Musk's encouragement, Lowe launched Restore Britain later that year. "X for Rupert and me has been-particularly for Rupert-phenomenal. It put him on the map," says Ben Habib, a commercial property investor and former European Parliament member who previously supported Lowe's political rise but has recently broken ranks.

Lowe says his popularity on X owes to his decades of experience and his plan for the country, not to Musk. The two had spoken twice by summer, Lowe said, including once over Zoom.

"People accuse him of altering the algorithm and stuff," Lowe told the Journal. "He doesn't do that. He's a highly principled man."

Lowe visited Austin, Texas, over Fourth of July weekend where he met briefly with Musk, recorded a two-hour episode with influential podcaster Joe Rogan and caught a televised World Cup soccer match at an Austin bar.

On the podcast, Lowe decried a "multicultural invasion" of Europe and laid out details of a report he commissioned last year on what he described as Muslim-Pakistani rape gangs in Britain. He thanked Musk for connecting him with Rogan.