Following the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk, tech billionaire Elon Musk has rejected calls for national unity and instead urged his millions of followers to "fight" in five separate online posts.
As most elected officials have pleaded for calm in the wake of Kirk's death, Musk has told his 226 million online followers that they need to "fight or die," though it's not always clear whom the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is referring to when calling for conflict.
Musk has primarily made his comments on X, the social media platform he owns, as well as in a speech that was livestreamed on Saturday to a rally in London. According to NBC News, he said "violence is coming" in the speech and called for the dismissal of the British Parliament and for new elections to be held.
On Aug. 29, Musk urged people in the United Kingdom and Ireland to "fight" in remarks relating to mass migration and cultural conflict. He has long been a proponent of a U.K. immigration crackdown.
"It's now or never," Musk posted on X, including an emoji of crossed swords. "Fight, fight, fight!"
The next day, he followed up with an additional cautionary comment: "Fight or die is what it comes down to."
In one of the instances when he posted "fight or die," Musk was responding to an account that had written about "fighting the woke mind virus."
In another, Musk hit back at a Facebook user who said that members of the far right "deserve to die." In his response on X on Saturday, Musk wrote, "We must fight back or be murdered."
Musk dismissed the possibility of peace in the wake of Kirk's killing.
"Peace is not possible with people who revel in murder," he posted Saturday.
On Monday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office slammed Musk's livestreamed speech, calling it "dangerous and inflammatory language" that threatened "violence and intimidation on our streets."
In the time since he quit his position as head of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, Musk has feuded on and off with the president and flirted with the idea of starting his own U.S. political party.
Since Kirk was shot last Wednesday, Musk has also reportedly demanded that rapper Bob Vylan be imprisoned for insulting the late Turning Point USA CEO, implored other tech executives to fire or deplatform other Kirk critics, and accused media and educational institutions of "programming people to murder."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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