The Global Left Is Coming for Elon Musk

Just a few years ago, entrepreneur and self-made billionaire Elon Musk was a darling of the international liberal establishment for leading advancements in electric vehicle and rocket technology. Now, Musk’s self-professed “free speech absolutism” and questioning of progressive orthodoxy has made him one of the most reviled figures among the global left – and they’re doing everything they can to take him down.

The most recent barrage began earlier this week with European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton threatening litigation against X, formerly Twitter, over supposed “illegal content” on the platform related to the ongoing hostilities in Israel.

In a public letter addressed to Musk, who purchased Twitter last year for $44 billion, Breton alleged that X “is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU” in violation of the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA is part of sweeping changes to European regulations which took effect last year that allow the EU to impose billions of dollars in fines on tech platforms that, in the judgement of EU regulators, don’t do enough to combat so-called “misinformation.”

But in an exchange with Musk on X, Breton failed to identify even one specific example of “illegal” content that the platform was not doing enough to address. “Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports,” Musk responded to Breton’s post sharing the letter. “Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that that the public can see them.”

“You are well aware of your users’ — and authorities’— reports on fake content and glorification of violence,” Breton replied. “Up to you to demonstrate that you walk the talk.”

Many censorship watchdogs warned ahead of the DSA’s passage that the law was nothing more than legal cover for left-wing EU bureaucrats to target conservatives and anyone who challenges the liberal establishment. Musk appears to be proving those fears correct.

Musk’s other business ventures are also at risk of becoming collateral damage in the left’s crusade against him. In August, the Biden Justice Department announced that it was suing SpaceX, a rocket company Musk founded that has worked with NASA to return American astronauts to space, over supposed discriminatory hiring practices.

The Biden administration claimed that SpaceX “routinely discouraged asylees and refugees from applying and refused to hire or consider them, because of their citizenship status, in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

Once again, Musk exposed the allegations against his company as a thinly veiled personal attack. “SpaceX was told repeatedly that hiring anyone who was not a permanent resident of the United States would violate international arms trafficking law, which would be a criminal offense,” he wrote on X. “We couldn’t even hire Canadian citizens, despite Canada being part of NORAD! This is yet another case of weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes.”

As another X user pointed out, the Department of Justice website lists “U.S. citizenship” as a requirement for its own applicants. “DOJ needs to sue themselves,” Musk joking responded.

Biden’s DOJ has also gone after Musk personally. Late last month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced that it was pursuing criminal charges against Musk for supposedly failing to disclose personal benefits he received as Tesla’s CEO. Those “benefits” allegedly included a house that Musk talked about constructing but never actually built.

Musk is also being harassed by Biden’s Securities and Exchange Commission over his purchase of Twitter last October. In an unusual move, the SEC reportedly is trying to force Musk to testify in person, bogging him and X down with a mountain of legal paperwork.

The liberal media has, of course, dutifully piled on, declaring Musk to be persona non grata. “Elon Musk has become the villain liberals always imagined him to be,” announced Politico Magazine shortly after Musk began publicly criticizing Democrats last year. “Elon Musk wades deeper into antisemitic propaganda” Rolling Stone proclaimed after Musk criticized the notoriously partisan Anti-Defamation League. Business Insider even ran a shoddily-researched hit piece claiming that Musk – who helped create PayPal, has led the design of rockets, and completely revamped a major social media platform – is a “grifter” who “has trouble running basic code.”

Elon Musk is arguably the individual most responsible for bringing the electric car into mainstream consumer culture. He has ambitions to build a network of high-speed trains throughout the United States. He is perhaps the world’s greatest champion of commercial renewable energy technology. All of these achievements should make him a hero to an ideological movement that claims the “climate crisis” is the most urgent and existential threat facing humanity.

But Musk has repeatedly committed the cardinal sin of leftism: he has pointed out how ridiculous and absurd “progressive” ideology is.

Elon Musk is what scares the left the most – someone with money and a platform who calls out their hypocrisy. It’s one thing if a relatively obscure X account with a few thousand followers points out how bad the border crisis is, how hypocritical the mainstream media is, or how rampant left-wing indoctrination is in schools. But when Musk shares those sentiments to his 157 million followers, it becomes a legitimate threat to the left’s narrative control.

The crusade against Musk isn’t just about one man. It’s about intimidating any other wealthy and powerful people who might think about stepping out of line. Because the left knows that if more influential voices find the courage (and wisdom) to stand up against them, their hold on power will be in serious jeopardy.

Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @ShaneHarris513.