Elon Musk's latest social media frenzy has seen him target UK political officials, and it has led to many thinking that the tech mogul is wanting to invade the United Kingdom.
Even before purchasing Twitter, now X, in a $44 billion deal that has significantly dropped in value, Elon Musk has never shied away from sharing his opinion on things.
He has used his power as head of the social media platform to spread his views and engage with an audience of 211 million followers, and many believe X and Musk played a key role in securing Donald Trump's US election victory last November.
Despite only holding a temporary advisory role to the US government, many saw Musk's power flexed in the days prior to Christmas where a key bipartisan budget was nearly derailed.
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He seemingly has his eyes set on UK politics now, pushing heavily against the current Labour government and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
As reported by the Mirror, Musk posted a poll on X asking users of the platform to vote 'yes' or 'no' as to whether "America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government."
At the time of writing the poll has just over 890,000 responses, with 60.8% voting for 'yes'.
What exactly Musk is insinuating with this poll is unclear, as 'liberate' is certainly a loose verb that can mean a number of things in this context - but many seem to think that Musk is threatening to 'invade' the United Kingdom.
Musk has previously hinted at pledging a staggering $100,000,000 behind Reform UK leader Nigel Farage - who, like Musk, shares close ties to Donald Trump - but he has also seemingly detached his support from Farage specifically, posting recently: "The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn't have what it takes."
Criticism from Musk seems to largely be surrounding the handling of historical cases of sexual abuse perpetrated by gangs and grooming rings, and much of his attention has been focused on Starmer and current UK safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.
Starmer has addressed Musk's comments, declaring that "a line has been crossed." He further added that "those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible, they're not interested in victims - they are interested in themselves."
"When the poison of the far right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book a line has been crossed," the prime minister added.
Musk responded to Starmer's statement on X, declaring: "What an insane thing to say!" continuing on to state he is "utterly despicable."
Many on social media have taken umbrage with Musk's lengthy tirade, particular in a post on the r/unitedkingdom subreddit.
"The man is not well," one commenter argues, "Something in him snapped some time ago."
"I would honestly be mortified to drive a Tesla at the moment," added another - and they might not be alone if reports of a sales decline has anything to say.
One even puts forward the notion that it's "time to shut down market access to the UK for any company Musk has any stake in."
It does make you wonder how Musk has the time for the amount of posting that he does with multiple companies and even government roles under his belt. One comment remarks: "I just don't understand why someone who has that much money chooses to spend so much time online. If I had his money I'd be on holiday 24/7."
You'd certainly be able to spend a long time on holiday with $437 billion in your back pocket.