Elon Musk drives Trump towards 'war' with Europe

Donald Trump has to make make a strategic decision about whether his government is going to be for Europe that Europe is going to be an ally uh European nations are going to be allies of the United States or in effect is Elon Musk going to be allowed to continue uh his efforts to destabilize those governments and find the US in effect by D of the fact that Elon Musk is within the the the the tent the Donald Trump tent is in effect declaring you know in war with with Europe to put it to put it

mildly because of the way that he's going after the the starmer administration the the year has started um with with so much news around particularly around the incoming president uh Donald Trump the US uh president-elect I should say has announced that Britain is making very big mistake a very big mistake with his winful tax on North Sea oil producers Donald Trump who has pledged to increase us oil and gas production has called on Britain to open up North Sea open up the North Sea and get rid of windmills which is very trumpy thing to say

I guess uh but what has sparked Trump's out rage at the UK government we're going to talk of course to Theo now uh about this why is is this strategic or is this just Trump sort of sitting on the toilet saying the first thing that comes into his head it's part of I guess a an America First strategy and it relates to a US based firm uh which has the rights to um or has the rights and is to explore for uh and drill for oil and gas in the North Sea um and of course

there's been um the the windfall tax was put up up um by Rachel Reeves in the budget oil and oiling uh gas profits in uh the North Sea to the tune of uh so we now have a headline rate of uh 78 uh 78 million pounds so in terms of where we find ourself it's only January the 3D but the government has got itself into its second transatlantic uh R this time is with the man himself Donald Trump who was venting his anger as I said the US oil as a US oil compan has pulled

its operations from the North Sea amid surging taxes on oil and gas now he was commenting Mr Trump was commenting on an article that the US oil giant Apache was quitting the nor SE because of uh the windfall tax on his profits Mr Trump then wrote on Truth social this is not on X he wrote the US is making a very big mistake open up the North Sea get rid of uh The Windmills of course this is a man who boiled down his energy policy during the presidential election to the simple Maxim uh drill baby

uh drill and uh he campaigned on a promise to increase oil and gas prod production uh during his second term Kia starm and Ed millerand of course since taking office have taken the UK uh in the opposite uh Direction since the election the labor government is committed remains committed uh to Banning new oil and gas exploration licenses uh in the North Sea at the same time as I said Rachel Reeves the Chan to increase the windfall tax on Rising energy profits introduced by Boris Johnson and Rishi sunak incidentally uh Jeff following Russia's invasion of uh

Ukraine uh it's octo in October's budget uh the the windfall tax jumped from 35% to 38% increasing the headline rate of tax on North seon gas to 78% sorry I just corrected myself um from earlier move which has been extended to uh 2030 and it's prompt and it's that rise which has prompted Apache based in Texas to amount announce plans that it plans to end all production in the North Sea by December 2029 because of what it calls and I'm quoting here the onerous Financial impact uh of the energy profits uh Levy uh the broader

picture is not much better either because offshore energy UK has previously warned that the wful tax could result in the loss to the UK of economy of around 13 billion pounds between now and 2029 putting 39,000 30 35,000 jobs at risk so so I I guess there might be some sympathy for the idea that these winful taxes are anti-competitive you could why strategically Trump might choose to maneuver around this issue but when you look at saying something like get rid of windmills that's just nakedly that feels potentially nakedly provocative yes and and and and you

know it comes off the back of what Elon Musk who is of course leading Trump's department for gun government efficiency has been tweeting over the last uh couple of days as I said this is the second R Jeff between the incoming Trump Administration and the UK uh Government after Elon Musk hit out at the decision by the home office Minister Jess Phillips uh not to Grant permission for a public inquiry into the grooming scandal in alen the question really is where does it go from here is this a pattern now that we're going to see

throughout uh 2025 and I just point you um if I can just to Patrick Maguire's common column on page 19 of the times and of course you can read it with a subscription uh on the Times app which offers some Clues as to how Downing Street is thinking about um this uh particular uh problem now they can either engage as Patrick writes with uh Elon Musk uh the B the billionaire Tech entrepreneur or Elon Musk the Internet troll I think they want to do uh the former and that's what you know Patrick's writing about because

that's what interests Rachel Reeves and uh where streeting who both have hold a great deal of store about when it comes to new technologies and particularly AI they've got Peter mandelson the incoming UK ambassador to Washington who's looking to build Bridges potentially but not formerly of course using the services of Nigel farage would possibly he could turn uh to Tony Blair but that's not going to happen do you think we talk about building bridges that there might be some regret in the a administration of not inviting him to that investment seminar yes I think it

does seem to have accelerated how Elon mus feels about the UK I think I think there's also some you know if you look back um when it comes to when it comes to not just Elon mus but Donald Trump you know they sent over advisors to to campaign with the Dem sent over activist campaign voluntarily or albeit with the Democrats during the election campaign that was seen as being an unwise move yes it had been done before but we're in a new world order now aren't we and I think also there are comments which you

know previously made by the liks of David Lamy sadik Khan were have been very critical of Donald Trump and they they hadn't made they hadn't had the forethought to think that being in opposition and then there's a jump between being in opposition and then being in govern government and there's also a jump of course um where you come from Donald Trump going from being the outgoing president left office in 2020 under a cloud and then he's come back and I don't think anybody within laborhood anticipated that that was going to happen and now they find

themselves having to deal with him but it feels like at the moment the policy from labor is to say very little in direct response to some of these more inflammatory statements how how long can that can go go on for is there a point where it's politically wise for them to to get on the front foot in reaction to some of these because let's be hon some of the things ELO musk has a lot of fans but some of the things he's been tweeting are downright inaccurate yes and and there's also frustration I think on

the right and there's a report out this afternoon saying there's some quite senior figures on the leading on the right of British politics who are saying that Elon Musk you know trying to get to the team Trump to advise Elon Musk not to tweet support for Tommy Robinson that there's a recognition that that is not helpful that Tommy Robinson is beyond the pale and that actually they need to keep you know they respect the support of Elon Musk of course Elon Musk has been talking to reform you care about large donations and support by using

his platform X but actually by tweeting support you know tweeting support for Tommy Robinson who is in prison having breached a court order and serving an 18-month jail term that is not something that is particularly helpful to the cause of the right I mean for a government that already you know generally feed on the backf are going into 2025 quite embattled it feels like one of those things that might just take up a hell of a lot of bandwidth uh this year and and and be quite exhaust it feels like at some point will the

starma team have to come up with with a more active strategy I think I think when you when you look at just how inflammatory and you mentioned Jeff just how inflammatory some of those tweets are from Elon Musk they are when you read them they can be read no other way that they're looking to destabilize the British government and we we're not alone in this he's gone after Olaf schulz's uh the chancellor of Germany he gone after his left leaning government he's taken aim at other European leaders as well and there is going to you

know there is a hope and Patrick writes about this towards the end of his column there has to be a hope that at some point you know Donald Trump has to make make a strategic decision about whether his government is going to be for Europe that Europe is going to be an ally uh European nations are going to be allies of the United States or in effect is Elon Musk going to be allowed to continue uh his efforts to destabilize those governments and find the US in effect by D of the fact that Elon Musk

is within the the the the tent the Donald Trump tent is in effect declaring you know in war with with Europe to put it to put it mildly because of the way that he's going after the the starmer administration just just finally sort of taking it back from diplomacy and small PE politics to actual economic impacts I mean what do you expect the impact will be if more us firms follow suit how much of a problem would that be for a government that are already on the back foot when it comes to delivering the growth

that they promised I think I think yes I think that firstly that but I also think um if you look at this um if you look at the strategy that Donald Trump is going to be employing in terms of pairing back on government you know the administrative state of looking to reduce taxes to stimulate the economy I think the danger for Kia starma and for Rachel Reeves is that three four years down the line we could see u a US economy which is booming that's seeing significant economic growth compared to a a UK economy where

they've taken a very different approach going in heavy uh on the taxes to start off with we've seen the 25 billion pounds raised through National insurances uh National Insurance contributions for employers inheritance tax um relief uh removed or half removed in large in half uh by uh the budget as well as part of a 40 billion pound tax raid um in the Autumn and actually when you compare the two strategies Kia starma and Rachel Reeves if they don't get the economic growth that they've been after if businesses don't feel that they're able to invest that

they don't feel that they're able to take new staff on because it's just so expensive that actually that compares very badly to what Donald Trump manages to do and this is you know crystal ball stuff but you know if he manages to get the economy firing the US economy firing all on all cylinders I think that you know with the link to Nigel farage there'll be you know Nigel farage and others will be saying look at what Donald Trump has managed to achieve with Elon musk's help over in the United States by taking a opposite

approach to to Kia starma and and that could that could that would not bod well I would have thought for labor at the next election okay well thanks very much for updating us on that story Theo Asha there uh the story that Donald Trump has spoken out about the winful tax on North Sea oil there and it also said that the government should ditch windmills