How Elon Musk Connects His Love for Trump to His Fight in Brazil – Mother Jones

Illustration by Mother Jones; Jordan Strauss∕AP

In an alternativeTand In a universe where you had no access to any source of information beyond Elon Musk’s tweets, it appears that the owner of Twitter/X is currently waging a fierce and heroic battle over freedom of speech with the Brazilian government. In reality, an extremely petty dispute — Musk’s refusal to name a local legal representative in Brazil, as per the country’s laws — has escalated dramatically, leading to Judge Alexandre de Moraes suspending X from the country last week.

Now Musk is combining his feud with Brazil with his growing support for Donald Trump, warning that America will become like Brazil if the former president is not re-elected.

In recent days, Musk’s Trump support has taken a more frantic turn, with constant tweets about the need to re-elect Trump and warnings of dire and increasingly far-fetched consequences if he doesn’t take office again. He’s shared a string of stories about crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants, writing in one instance: “So many lives have been lost because Democrat policies cater to the criminal clients. Criminals vote overwhelmingly Democrat, so they don’t want to lose their vote.” In an ongoing fixation on migrants and crime, he’s also reshared posts by Chaya Raichik of the far-right Twitter account Libs of TikTok claiming that “gangs of migrants” have taken over an apartment building in Colorado. (Aurora’s interim police chief has denied the allegations, telling a local ABC station that “gang members did not take over this complex.”)

Musk has also directly linked his Brazil feud to the need to defeat Kamala Harris, retweeting and agreeing with the account End Wokeness, which wrote: “Kamala supports what Brazil just did to X. How do I know? She wants to do it here.” The clip linked by the account is a 2019 interview Harris did with CNN’s Jake Tapper in which she said that Donald Trump had “lost his privileges” in his use of Twitter and that his account “should be deleted by the company.” The comments came amid Trump’s extensive use of the platform during his impeachment proceedings to engage in what Democrats have called witness intimidation. Some Twitter users who reshared the clip in 2024, such as Trump-endorsed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have incorrectly suggested that the conversation occurred more recently and that Harris was referring to Elon Musk.

Musk also reshared and agreed with a post by contrarian pundit and Musk booster Michael Shellenberger, who wrote: “People think Brazilian-style censorship couldn’t happen here, but it can. Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and Barack Obama have all called for strict government censorship like that of Brazil and Europe, complete with banning disgraced individuals from all platforms.”

Musk also continues to give a platform to far-right ideas and Twitter users; early Tuesday, he shared an episode of Tucker Carlson’s Twitter-only talk show, which he called “really interesting.” The episode featured an interview Carlson did with a self-described historian and Substack user named Darryl Cooper, who explained that his latest project examines World War II, which he describes as a historical event that is “taboo” in the way it’s talked about. Both men agreed that people in Germany and Austria had been jailed for “looking at the wrong angles” when researching World War II, as Cooper put it. In response, a Twitter account run by British Holocaust denier David Irving thanked the two men for their conversation, writing, “Nice to be in the mainstream conversation, but it would be nice to get a mention.” (The account’s bio says it’s run by a bookstore that continues Irving’s work, while he himself “takes a step back for health reasons.”)

Twitter remains suspended in Brazil, with a Supreme Court panel ruling on Monday that it will remain so until the company appoints a legal representative and pays fines that currently total more than $3 million. Brazilian Twitter users who access the site using a VPN could also face a daily fine of 50,000 reais, or about $8,900, the Associated Press reported. The Brazilian bar association has objected to the move, saying in a letter to the Supreme Court that the daily fine “constitutes a grave affront to individuals and legal entities in a broad and generalized manner to the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.” On Monday, Musk reshared a tweet that incorrectly said VPN use would not be fined in Brazil, calling it “a step in the right direction!” (It wasn’t, because that wasn’t true and hasn’t happened.)

Pundit Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil and is a prolific Twitter user, has posted occasionally but has not said whether he is in the country or using a VPN. Marcel Van Hattem, a conservative political scientist who serves in the country’s Chamber of Deputies, tweeted on August 30 that he accesses the site using a VPN, adding: “Thank you @elonmusk for standing with us. Your stance against censorship and authoritarianism gives us hope and strengthens our cause for freedom in Brazil!”