Why Elon Musk could cause trouble for Anthony Albanese in this year’s Australian federal election

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is not afraid of trolling heads of state, as European leaders are currently finding out. It could be Anthony Albanese’s turn next, writes Julie Cross.

Elon Musk could cause trouble for Anthony Albanese during this election year.

With an election coming up, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should brace himself for some ‘friendly’ feedback from Elon Musk, who is showing himself to be the world’s most powerful (and erratic) troll.

The billionaire Tesla CEO, and richest man on the planet, is not afraid to target heads of state.

Musk has already interfered in Germany’s election by labelling German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “an incompetent fool” and endorsing the rival far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, upsetting European leaders.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, reacted by saying it’s worrying that “a man with enormous access to social media” would be so directly involved in the politics of other nations.

And French President Emmanuel Macron accused Musk of being behind an “international reactionary movement”.

Elon Musk called Anthony Albanese a fascist in a brutal tweet last year.

Which is why when I imagine Musk hard at work bringing down world leaders, I see him in a leather chair, a purring white cat on his lap, and wearing a monocle (OK, the monocle is a step too far).

His fingers must tingle with anticipation as he prepares to unleash his words of wisdom to his 211 million followers on X, the social media platform he owns, because whatever he posts causes political tidal waves.

It’s a PR nightmare for politicians, who are left trying to defend themselves without upsetting Musk’s new buddy, President elect Donald Trump.

Already this year, he has called for British PM Keir Starmer to resign over a decades old scandal. He accused Starmer, who was previously Britain’s chief prosecutor, of allegedly not doing enough for the victims of predominantly Pakistani gangs, who groomed and raped, vulnerable white girls on an industrial scale across England in the 2000s and 2010s.

These girls were massively let down by the state, in part because of what some believed to be the delicate issue of the perpetrators’ race. A former Labour MP said authorities “were petrified of being called racist and so reverted to the default of political correctness”.

Starmer successfully locked up some of these gangs at the time, but Musk’s reigniting of the issue has made the front pages and got the public once again asking whether there was a cover up and why no-one in authority was ever been prosecuted for failing these kids? I agree. Why?

Who knows how Musk, who called Albanese a “fascist” last year, will insert himself into Australian politics in the run up to the election and whether it will have an impact, but watch this space.

Originally published as Why Elon Musk could cause trouble for Anthony Albanese in this year’s Australian federal election