Why Elon Musk has cooled his bromance with Tommy Robinson

Elon Musk appears to be publicly distancing himself from Tommy Robinson, as the far-right leader plans a huge anti-migration rally in London this weekend. Hate-speech monitors have told this paper Musk’s quietness towards Robinson is “unusual” and noted instead that Musk seems enthused by Rupert Lowe’s party, Restore Britain. The tech billionaire emerged in 2024 as a vocal supporter of Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, on the social media platform X, which he owns. Musk called for the anti-Islam figure to be freed from prison and this paper revealed Robinson’s team claimed Musk was footing some of Robinson’s mounting legal fees. A still from a promotional video published on Robinson’s X feed showing Elon Musk’s video appearance at last year’s march (Photo: Robinson/X) Since then, Musk has amplified Robinson’s profile on X, previously known as Twitter, by sharing his posts with his 240 million followers and publicly responding to his messages. Musk’s support went further, appearing centre stage on a large screen during Robinson’s march of up to 150,000 anti-migrant protesers across London in September 2025, with a photo of this being used by the former English Defence League’s leader to promote this weekend’s event. However analysis of their X accounts suggest that relationship may have cooled. Absent friends Musk’s public replies to and shares of Robinson’s posts have dwindled, with the billionaire not engaging with his profile for more than a month despite Robinson attempting to drum up support for what he describes as this Saturday’s “patriotic” march. Musk appears to have ignored a number of Robinson’s posts this year. The hard-right activist’s most recent post to Musk, “What would freedom loving people have done with X. Thank you so much @elonmusk”, has so far been ignored. It’s unclear if Robinson meant to write “without X”. What would freedom loving people have done with X . Thank you so much @elonmusk— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) May 14, 2026 A similar post the day before from Robinson was also not picked up by Musk. The tech billionaire last interacted with Robinson more than a month ago on 12 April. Robinson replied to a post Musk made about his satellite internet service Starlink, which Musk reposted and responded briefly to using an emoji. A second post from Robinson that day to Musk appears to have been ignored. Musk does not appear to have otherwise interacted with Robinson in 2026, according to analysis of X, with the hard-right figure attempting to get Musk’s attention by tagging him in at least nine posts this year. The change in relationship has been noted by researchers monitoring hate speech. “It is unusual that Elon Musk has been silent about the upcoming Unite the Kingdom rally given his past vocal support of Tommy Robinson and UK far-right politics,” Dr Eviane Leidig, a director at the Center for the Study of Organized Hate said, in comments echoed by Dr Aaron Winter, a professor of Sociology at Lancaster University who specialises in the far-right. Dr Winter said: “While Musk had been vocal in support for Tommy Robinson… he has been quiet in recent months. That does not mean he is not still supporting Robinson in some capacity, but the lack of public proclamations from someone who seeks political involvement and attention is notable.” Lowe beats Robinson in race for Musk’s attention Analysis of Musk’s X activity indicates he appears to have become less embroiled in UK politics, limiting himself mostly to a handful of posts in support of former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe and his Restore Britain Party. Musk shared posts from both the MP and the party, as well as posting his own endorsement in March. He wrote Restore is “the only way to save Britain”. Lowe and his party have built a large audience on X compared to other platforms – he has amassed more than 760,000 followers, while the Restore account has 350,000. Musk has been reposting Restore Britain and Rupert Lowe’s messages on X Joe Mulhall, Director of Research at HOPE not hate, noted: “The last rally in September 2025 was in the middle of a period where Musk was tweeting a lot about the UK, whereas now he seems to have moved on to different topics. His interests always ebb and flow, so it’s not to say he won’t focus on the UK again in the future. “Musk being in Beijing with Trump currently is likely taking up most of his time. It also seems like his interest and support is now more towards Restore and Rupert Lowe rather than Reform or Lennon.” Musk also appears more focused on celebrating his business interests including Starlink and X. He recently shared posts highlighting that major advertisers, such as General Motors and Burger King, were returning to the platform after many stepped away following investigations suggesting that X was becoming a safe haven for far-right hate speech. X appears to be trying to distance itself from these accusations, with Ofcom announcing on Friday that the platform has committed to increasing safeguards relating to illegal hate and terror content. New measures include a pledge that hate speech flagged to them will be reviewed by their safety team within 24 hours of it being reported. Fears of violence Dr Winter notes that Musk may be attempting to avoid links to any physical violence, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer issuing a strong warning on Friday to those attending the march. Eleven foreign extremists have been blocked from entering the country to take part in the march. Saturday is expected to be one of the busiest days for policing in recent years with thousands expected to descend on the capital. The Metropolitan Police confirmed they will be employing facial recognition technology for the first time at a protest. Robinson, who denies being part of the far-right, has publicly stressed that the planned march will be peaceful and legal, including stepping in to dissuade people from following a call from his former bodyguard, Daniel Thomas, for people to conduct a three-day sit-in in Westminster. Thomas appearing on a live stream with anti-Islam campaigner Tommy Robinson in April ahead of a large anti-migrant march planned for London in May. (Photo: Danny Tommo/YouTube) “The fact that Musk risked being implicated in street level disorder and violence, as well as crime, by publicly supporting Robinson, could potentially impact both this and his business,” Dr Winter said. Musk does not appear to have just cooled on Robinson, but has also turned on his previous ally Nigel Farage. Responding to filmed comments by Nigel Farage claiming that Musk “wanted to give us a load of money if I said certain things publicly and I refused”, the billionaire posted “Farage is lying”. While Musk and Robinson’s trail of public breadcrumbs on X paint a picture of a cooling relationship, the behind-the-scenes conversation between the world’s richest man and one of Britain’s most high profile hard-right figures is not known. Musk has not been publicly announced as appearing at tomorrow’s march and if he does not feature, it could be confirmation that the bromance is officially over.