Elon Musk helped Trump win. Now he's looking at Europe, and many politicians are alarmed

LONDON (AP) — Fresh from pouring his money and energies into helping Donald Trump win reelection, Elon Musk has trained his sights on Europe, setting off alarm bells among politicians across the continent.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive has endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany, demanded the release of jailed U.K. anti-Islam extremist Tommy Robinson and called British Prime Minister Keir Starmer an evil tyrant who should be in prison.

Many European politicians have been left concerned by the attention. Musk’s feed on his social network X is dotted with abusive language — labeling politicians “stupid cretin” and “sniveling cowards” — as well as retweets of far-right and anti-immigrant accounts.

Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communication at Loughborough University, said Musk is using X “a bit like an old-style newspaper mogul,” to promulgate his political views.

“We’ve seen Musk start to align himself much more obviously with an international movement of the far right,” Chadwick said. ”If you look at the kinds of people who Musk himself is boosting on his platform … he’s increasingly started to assemble a group of different right-wing influencers, many of them with large followings, and presenting their evidence as a basis for his interventions into European politics.”

Musk has inserted himself into politics in Germany, which is headed for a Feb. 23 election after center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fractious three-party coalition government collapsed.

On Dec. 20, Musk wrote on X: “Only the AfD can save Germany,” a reference to the Alternative for Germany party, which is under observation by the domestic intelligence agency for suspected extremism.

He doubled down on support for the AfD in an article for the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, claiming Germany is “teetering on the edge of economic and cultural collapse.” Later this week Musk is due to hold a live chat on X with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel.

Scholz’s response embodies the dilemma faced by European politicians — should they ignore and let Musk’s comments go unchallenged, or engage and risk amplifying them?

Scholz has said it’s important to “stay cool” over personal attacks, but called Musk’s involvement in German politics worrying. In a new year message, Scholz pointedly noted that Germany’s way forward “will not be decided by the owners of social media channels” but by German voters.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Monday about the risks posed by unchecked power in the hands of tech billionaires and the destabilizing impact they could have on democratic institutions.

“Who could have imagined, 10 years ago, that the owner of one of the world’s largest social networks would intervene directly in elections, including in Germany?” Macron said.

Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said Musk’s behavior was “troubling and far from amusing.”

“Someone cannot simply use their platform, wealth and connections to try to dictate how governments are formed in each nation,” he told Parapolitika Radio. “This is becoming increasingly dangerous.”

Musk has increasingly focused on British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July, calling Starmer an “evil” leader presiding over a “tyrannical police state.”

Musk’s recent focus is on child sexual abuse, particularly a series of cases that rocked northern England towns several years ago, in which groups of men, largely from Pakistani backgrounds, were tried for grooming and abusing dozens of mostly white girls. The cases have been used by far-right activists to link child abuse to immigration and Islam.

Musk has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013 — a charge Starmer strongly denies.

“Starmer must go and he must face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain,” Musk tweeted.

Chadwick said “there’s been a hesitancy on the part of the political elite in the U.K. to engage” with Musk’s “incredibly inflammatory remarks.” But Starmer changed tack Monday, condemning “lies and misinformation” and accusing U.K. Conservative politicians who have echoed some of Musk’s points of “amplifying what the far right are saying.”

“I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics, the robust debate that we must have, but that’s got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies,” the prime minister said.

Starmer is facing calls to tighten Britain’s laws on foreign interference, and governments around the world are under pressure to leave X. Both the U.K. and German governments say they have no plans to quit the platform.

Musk’s X is under investigation by European authorities attempting to curb hatred, disinformation and other toxic content on social media. The European Union has launched infringement proceedings against X under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, and EU spokesman Thomas Regnier said it will look at whether Musk's livestream interview Thursday with the AfD's Weidel gives inappropriate “preferential treatment” to the party during a preelection period.

Musk, a self-styled free-speech advocate, is critical of efforts to regulate social media. He has compared British attempts to weed out online misinformation through the Online Safety Act to censorship in the Soviet Union.

Musk clearly enjoys baiting mainstream politicians on social media, but Chadwick said it “remains to be seen” whether his posting changes public attitudes or helps the causes he champions.

And the political interventions carry risk for him. His comments are being watched closely by Tesla investors for signs he could be turning off car buyers who don’t agree with his politics.

Tesla is already struggling in Europe, where new registrations for Musk’s electronic vehicles fell 13% in the first nine months of 2023, according to auto researcher Jato Dynamics. In Germany, Tesla registrations dropped 44%.

Jato senior analyst Felipe Munoz said that Musk's outspokenness is rare and risky for the owner of a publicly traded company — though it may pay off in the end.

“Europe is going to (the) right,” he said, pointing to politicians including France’s Marine Le Pen and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni.

“Look at what happened in the U.S. His bet on Trump worked. He is playing the same game in Europe.”

Geir Moulson in Berlin; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Raf Casert in Brussels; Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece; and Bernard Condon in New York contributed to this story.

FILE - Elon Musk jumps on the stage as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show on Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits a healthcare provider to deliver remarks on reducing NHS wait times, in Surrey, England, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during a visit to the company MTU Maintenance Berlin-Brandenburg in his constituency, Ludwigsfelde, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Christoph Gollnow/dpa via AP)

FILE - People carry candles attending an AfD election campaign in front of the cathedral in Magdeburg, Germany, on Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

FILE - Elon Musk speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine (AP) — Anger and outrage gripped the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday as it held funerals for some of the 20 people, including nine children, killed by a Russian missile that tore through apartment buildings and blasted a playground.

More than 70 were wounded in the attack last Friday evening on Kryvyi Rih. The children were playing on swings and in a sandbox in a tree-lined park at the time. Bodies were strewn across the grass.

“We are not asking for pity,” Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city administration, wrote on Telegram as Kryvyi Rih mourned. “We demand the world’s outrage.”

The U.N. Human Rights Office in Ukraine said it was the deadliest single verified strike harming children since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. It was also one of the deadliest attacks so far this year.

Ukraine has consented to a ceasefire proposed weeks ago by Washington. But Russia is still negotiating with the United States its terms for accepting a truce in the more than three-year war.

U.S. President Donald Trump has voiced frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the continued fighting, and Ukrainian officials want him to compel Putin to stop. Trump vowed during his election campaign last year to bring a swift end to the war.

“We’re talking to Russia. We’d like them to stop,” Trump told reporters Sunday. “I don’t like the bombing.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed Monday that Putin supports a ceasefire proposed by Trump but wants Russian conditions to be met.

“President Putin indeed backs the ceasefire idea, but it’s necessary to first answer quite a few questions,” Peskov said.

In Kryvyi Rih, teacher Iryna Kholod, 59, remembered Arina and Radyslav, both 7 years old and killed in Friday's strike, as being “like little suns in the classroom.”

Radyslav, she said, was proud to be part of a school campaign collecting pet food for stray animals. “He held the bag like it was treasure. He wanted to help,” she told The Associated Press.

After Friday evening, "two desks in my classroom were empty forever,” Kholod said, adding that she still has unopened birthday gifts for them.

“How do I tell parents to return their textbooks? How do I teach without them?” she asked.

Russian missile and drone tactics continue to evolve, making it harder to shoot them down, Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force command, said on national television.

Russia's Shahed drones have undergone significant upgrades, while Moscow is also modernizing its ballistic missiles, he said.

Only the U.S. Patriot missile defense system can help prevent attacks like the one in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy said late Sunday.

He said he had instructed his defense and foreign affairs ministers to "work bilaterally on air defense, especially with the United States, which has sufficient potential to help stop any terror.”

Ukraine will send a team to Washington this week to begin negotiations on a new draft of a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s valuable mineral resources, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko told The Associated Press.

Failure to conclude a mineral deal has hamstrung Ukrainian efforts to secure pledges of continuing U.S. military support.

Britain's Ministry of Defense and the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, say Russia's battlefield progress on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line has slowed since November. But on Saturday night, Russia launched its biggest aerial attack on Ukraine in nearly a month.

Both sides are thought to be preparing for a renewed spring-summer military campaign.

In Kryvyi Rih on Monday, Nataliia Slobodeniuk recalled her student Danylo Nikitskyi, 15, as “a spark” who energized the classroom and helped organize school trips and other occasions.

Danylo died alongside his girlfriend, Alina Kutsenko, also 15. “They were holding hands,” said Roman Nikitskyi, Danylo’s father.

“If Danylo was going, half the class went too,” the 55-year-old teacher said. “That’s how loved he was.”

She choked up as she spoke of her feeling of powerlessness after the attack.

“You live through their joy, their sadness,” she told AP. “And now, this pain, it tears you apart. And you realize there’s nothing you can do. Nothing to fix it. You just carry the pain forever.”

An air raid alert interrupted a planned memorial ceremony in the city — a reminder of the continuing threat for civilians.

The frustration hit home for Nataliia Freylikh, the schoolteacher of 9-year-old Herman Tripolets, who was killed in last Friday's attack. Tripolets’ funeral procession began at the child’s school, where teachers, classmates, and families gathered in silence. Nearly one hundred people stood grief-stricken together.

“Even mourning him properly is impossible,” Freylikh said.

From there, the mourners walked to the church for the funeral liturgy — and bid a final farewell to the children who never made it home.

Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, dead bodies lie on the ground after a Russian missile hit apartment houses and a playground, killing 14 civilians including six children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, dead bodies lie on the ground after a Russian missile hit apartment houses and a playground, killing 14 civilians including six children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, dead bodies lie on the ground after a Russian missile hit apartment houses and a playground, killing 14 civilians including six children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Flowers and toys left in the play area to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday, near apartment buildings, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo)

Flowers and toys left on a swing seat to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday, at a children play area near the damaged apartment buildings, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo)