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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz offered a subtle critique around billionaire Elon Musk’s influence over President-elect Trump early Tuesday, saying the fate of the nation will not be decided by “the owners of social media.”
“In our discussions, you can be forgiven for sometimes thinking that the more extreme an opinion is, the more attention it will get,” Scholz said in his New Year’s message, without specifically pointing to Musk or Trump, he said. . the guardian.
He added that Germany’s future “depends on the vast majority of reasonable and decent people.”
“After all, it’s customary to make wishes on New Year’s Eve,” Scholz said later. “What I wish is that we don’t play with each other.”
His comments come days after the German government charged the billionaire trying to influence their February elections.
moss wrote a comment in the national newspaper Welt am Sonntag which supports the far-right political party Alternative for Germany. In the piece, the staunch Trump ally also called for Scholz’s resignation.
Christiane Hoffmann, a spokeswoman for the chancellor’s office, acknowledged that despite the perceived meddling, Musk was entitled to his opinion.
“After all, freedom of opinion also covers the biggest nonsense,” Hoffmann said Monday.
The chancellor in his comments on Tuesday pointed to what he called misinformation on social media around recent attack on the Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg, which left five dead and 200 injured.
“However, not a small amount of these rumors and conjectures, meanwhile, have been debunked. These things divide us and weaken us,” he said, The Guardian reported. “This is not good for our country.”
Follow the back and forth criticism of the Democrats around who is calling the shots ahead of Trump back to the White House. Many have mocked the former president, claiming that “President Musk” is really in charge after the billionaire helped kill a bipartisan spending deal earlier this month and the president-elect apparently followed suit.
Trump over the weekend rejected the claimsechoing his team’s claims that he is the “real leader” of the GOP.
“No, he won’t be president, I can tell you that.” Trump said of Musk during a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix on Sunday. “And I’m sure, you know why? It can’t be, he wasn’t born in this country”.
The relationship between the two has also done so been examined by key Trump allies, including former counselor Steve Bannon and far-right activist Laura Loomer, in light of recent conservative fights over the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program.
When reached for comment, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung pointed The Hill to the president-elect’s previous comments.
