The far-right was left unimpressed by Elon Musk’s much-hyped conversation with the leader of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), viewing the disorganized and awkward chat as a missed opportunity for German nationalists ahead of the country’s upcoming elections.
Musk and AfD leader Alice Weidel spoke live on X’s Spaces platform for nearly 80 minutes, but the discussion—which watchdog groups warned could amount to free advertising for the surging right-wing party—devolved into a rambling chat about SpaceX, dinosaurs, and the existence of God.
The pair started with a ten-minute back-and-forth about nuclear reactors, which angered far-right commenters who wanted to hear about AfD’s anti-immigration platform.
“musk is going on and on about nuclear reactor design specifics,” wrote one X user. “christ can we talk at some point about migration, about real things.”
The anonymous user followed up with another post as the chat about energy policy ambled along: “IS THIS WHOLE THING GOING TO BE ABOUT NUCLEAR I HAD SUCH HIGH HOPES”
AfD is second in the polls ahead of the country’s snap election on Feb. 23—a dramatic rise having been founded just 12 years ago.
But the party’s most extreme observers didn’t see enough hardline nativism from Weidel, whose grandfather was a Hiter-appointed Nazi judge.
Musk’s newfound support for AfD sparked outrage late last year after he claimed the party was the only group that could “save Germany.”
Given his campaign efforts for President-elect Donald Trump and his frequent parroting of right-wing talking points on X, many observers viewed his embrace of the AfD as an attempt to buttress the global far-right.
But the chat didn’t do that.
“What’s exactly the point of an ‘Alternative Right’ if you’re not offering anything bold, new, or dynamic?” notorious alt-right leader Richard Spencer wrote on X. “This has been a midwit conversation suitable for a dorm room or coffee shop.”
“Weidel called Hitler a communist,” another antisemitic, far-right poster wrote. “AfD cannot save Germany, its over,” they added, presumably hoping Weidel would be more willing to embrace the country’s genocidal past.
Musk and Weidel did touch on their shared opposition to undocumented immigrants at points, but the politician rarely made a concerted policy pitch to the 200,000 or so listeners who were tuned in at any given time.
Given the floor after nearly an hour of back-and-forth conversation, Weidel chose to turn the tables on Musk and ask him about SpaceX’s plans for Mars exploration.
The question prompted a rambling answer about aliens, the age of planet Earth, and the elements composing the human body. Weidel managed to interject with a “yeah” every once in a while.
“I think that there’s a good chance that Mars helps to save Earth at some point in the future,” Musk opined. “And once we have a civilization on Mars, we can expand to the rest of the solar system.”
“This is the most amateurish preparation for such a conversation that there has ever been,” a University of Cologne politics professor wrote on X in German. “Weidel is wasting the great opportunity that Musk has offered her and my impression is that he knows it.”
In the most surreal moment of the livestream, Weidel asked Musk if he believed in God. He used the yes-or-no question to pontificate about his “philosophy of curiosity,” which he ascribed to Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series.
“Actually these are perfect last words, to be honest,” Weidel responded, effectively ending the talk. “It was wonderful talking to you and listening to your views of mankind.”
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