Inside Elon Musk's Seemingly Self-Imagined Ties With The Royal Family

Being the richest man in the world must make a person feel like a king — although it's important to remember that it doesn't make someone an actual king. This is a lesson Tesla CEO Elon Musk might want to keep in mind as he wades into U.K. politics. The billionaire tech mogul spent a great deal of time in the first month of 2025 picking fights with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and making unreasonable demands of King Charles III, all while several of his rich friends have pressured him to just back off. Even Prince Harry has spoken out against Musk's conspiratorial social media posts.

Beginning in early January, 2025, Musk took to his own social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and began to repeatedly call on King Charles to dissolve parliament, which is currently governed by the U.K. Labor Party. The calls to action echo right-wing sentiment in Britain, and Musk has begun to ingratiate himself into English politics, reportedly offering to fund future campaigns for far-right politician Nigel Farage and others. Although he has also attacked Farage online, making Musk's positions difficult to gauge.

However, it's Musk's persistence in messaging King Charles that surprised many royal watchers and political pundits. Musk's social media tirade calling for the overthrow of the British government involved a whopping 23 posts directed toward the king in under an hour in early January. It was a trademark brash move from Musk — who is no stranger to messy feuds — that seemed to rub many in the U.K. the wrong way.

While Elon Musk has found quite a bit of notoriety in the United States for his work with Tesla and SpaceX and has found his way into the forthcoming administration by palling around with president-elect Donald Trump, it seems the U.K. isn't so fond of the billionaire. Despite his efforts to influence English politics, surveys and polls show that the general public is tired of Musk's rants. Undoubtedly, this opinion wasn't helped much by his X post on January 5, 2025, in which he wrote above a poll, "America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government."

Market research group YouGov's recent research shows that over 70% of people in England have a negative opinion of Musk. This places the billionaire even lower in popularity than the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, who is disliked by 65% of those surveyed. "The only group of the public who have a favourable view of Musk are Reform U.K. voters, with 51% holding a positive opinion," YouGov reported, referring to the nation's far-right conservative political party, which Musk has been aggressively appealing to.

Even some of Musk's friends and allies have begun to push back. Scottish historian and educator Niall Ferguson, who has been a reported pal to Musk for years, recently told The Times U.K. that Musk might want to chill out. "Someone who's not a British citizen should not be playing a disproportionate part in British politics, directly or indirectly," Ferguson shared.