The former deputy PM and Lib Dem leader, who is now Meta’s president of global affairs, says Musk is playing an “outsized role” in the Trump administration.
Elon Musk risks becoming a “political puppet master” in US politics, the former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has said.
In comments made on Nick Robinson’s Political Thinking podcast, Clegg said that the billionaire and X owner Elon Musk had been “playing an outsized role” in the US election and now the formation of the Trump’s administration.
Clegg said Musk has a choice “he can either be an avid and well-heeled supporter, which is what he seems […] or he can try and become a sort of political puppet master”.
The former deputy PM said this would involve Musk “going well beyond Trump, deciding who the next Republican candidate should be, and the one after that”.
He stated that while it’s common for “people with means” to get involved in politics, taking on the role of a “political puppet master” would be “quite different” to the general tradition of American democracy.
Clegg stood by comments he previously made about X being “a one man, hyper-partisan, ideological hobby horse”.
Nick Robinson questioned the former Liberal Democrat leader on his job as second-in-command to Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, suggesting that some might ask, “What on earth are you doing working for a global multibillionaire who has this degree of power? You should be taking him on.”
Clegg responded: “I’ve never believed in life whether it was going into coalition when people said I should or taking controversial decisions when I shouldn’t, I’ve never believed in the comfort of just basically commentary from the sidelines.
He continued: “If I’ve had a chance as I have been very lucky enough in my life, to get my hands dirty and deal with consequential issues, I’ve always hugely enjoyed that.”
Clegg joined Meta as vice president of global affairs in 2018 after he lost his Sheffield Hallam seat to Labour in 2017.
In 2022, he was promoted to the senior role of president of global affairs by Zuckerberg.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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