Meloni thanking Musk for introducing her at an awards gala in Manhattan last September. Musk has aligned himself with far right world leaders. — ©2025 The New York Times Company
FOR the past decade or more, Europe’s governments have been trying to resist covert influence operations from adversaries like Russia and China.
Now they have a very different challenge: Fending off overt efforts by Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) movement to seize territory, oust elected leaders and empower far-right causes and parties.
