Elon Musk took his support for Germany's far-right party to the next level on Thursday by hosting a live chat with its frontwoman Alice Weidel.
The 74-minute conversation covers energy policy, German bureaucracy, Adolf Hitler, Mars and the meaning of life.
The world's richest man has unequivocally called on Germans to support Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in the upcoming elections.
It's the tech billionaire's latest controversial foray into European politics.
There has been significant build-up to this discussion since Elon Musk faced allegations of meddling in Germany's early election.
But the interview, conducted in English, was perhaps no less a chance for the AfD to reach an international audience through Musk's X platform.
Knowing about his close relationship with Donald Trump, Alice Weidel made sure to express her support for the US President-elect and his team.
She insisted her party was “conservative” and “libertarian” but had been “negatively framed” by the mainstream media as extremist.
Sections of the AfD are officially classified as right-wing extremists by the German authorities.
A BBC News investigation last year found links between some party figures and far-right networks, while one of the party's hard-right leaders, Björn Höcke, was fined last year for using a banned Nazi phrase – although he denied knowingly doing so.
During the conversation, Weidel stated that Hitler was in fact a “communist”, despite the Nazi leader's remarkable anti-communism, which invaded the Soviet Union.
“He was not a conservative,” she said. “He was not a libertarian. It was this communist, socialist.”
She also described Hitler as an “anti-Semitic socialist”.
In other matters, she and Musk ranted — and at times giggled — about Germany's notorious bureaucracy, its “crazy” abandonment of nuclear power, the need for tax cuts, free speech and “wokeness.”
In a sometimes tense and sometimes surprising conversation, a surreal moment occurred when Mr. Weidel asked Mr. Musk if he believed in God.
The answer – for those who want to know – was that he was open to the idea as he sought to “understand the universe as much as possible”.
Despite all the anticipation, this exchange certainly wasn't in many people's bingo cards.
The AfD, which also opposes Berlin's arms aid to Ukraine, is in second place in Germany's polls with a snap federal election scheduled for February 23.
However, he will not be able to take power as the other parties will not work with him.
That didn't stop Elon Musk from hailing Weidel as “the leading candidate to rule Germany.”
He justified his intervention by citing his significant investments in the country — notably a massive Tesla factory just outside Berlin.
And he rejected the characterization of the AfD as far-right while previously labeling Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a “fool”.
Scholz, whose chances of retaining the chancellorship appear remote, later insisted he “remains cool” about Elon Musk's attacks.