Meet Everyone Hates Elon, the U.K.-Based Collective Attempting to Take Down Musk: “Let’s Make Billionaires Losers Again”
Last week, a poster was put up at a bus stop in east London. “Goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds,” the image says, with a picture of Elon Musk in a Tesla. Below that, it reads: “The Swasticar.” As of the time of writing, a TikTok of the poster being installed has more than 10 million views with 1.1 million likes.
The group responsible for this viral moment is the U.K.-based collective Everyone Hates Elon. “This is a real moment where people have had enough of billionaires getting involved in our politics,” one of the group’s spokespeople says in an anonymous interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “So how do you hurt the richest man in the world?”
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EHE is a currently just a handful of people working to “piss off Elon Musk one small action at a time.” It all began in January, when a group of friends were decidedly fed up with Musk, founder of Tesla, owner of X and Donald Trump’s head of department for government efficiency (DOGE), who was tweeting at the time: “Free Tommy Robinson!” (Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is a far-right activist and anti-Islam campaigner in the U.K., currently serving jail time for publicly repeating false accusations against a teenage Syrian refugee.)
In addition to this, Musk has continuously attacked British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in relation to an infamous U.K. grooming scandal, making confusing and unsubstantiated claims. He said Starmer, who ran the country’s Crime Prosecution Service from 2008-13 while the grooming gangs were investigated, is “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes” and called one of Starmer’s ministers, Jess Phillips, a “genocide rape apologist” for rejecting a request that the government lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation (Phillips later said a local inquiry was more effective at prompting change).
Musk’s fanning of political flames in Europe has continued in recent weeks, posting content such as “From MAGA to MEGA: Make Europe Great Again!” and endorsing Germany and Britain’s far-right parties.
“[Musk] is the richest person in the world,” EHE says. “He’s got $200 billion richer last year while nurses in this country have to use food banks. And he thinks he’s got a right to talk about what British people need or want.”
Then Trump was inaugurated and Musk made what resembled a Nazi salute in front of the entire world. This gave EHE the momentum they needed. “OK, Elon, if you’re going to show the world who you are, let’s show the world who Tesla really is,” the group adds, explaining that the car company’s business is where the public can best vote against the tech mogul.
This is when the campaign really started to take off. Millions of social media likes and one endorsement from Stephen King later, EHE’s fundraiser, the People Versus Elon, is on track to make ￡150,000 ($190,000) by next year thanks to regular donors. People versus Elon is set up so that ordinary folk can donate as little as one penny every time Musk posts on X (which is around 2,000 times a month). The group is also selling “Don’t Buy a Swasticar” stickers.
EHE says it is donating this money to causes Musk “hates,” predominantly those supporting trans people, migrants, refugees as well as groups tackling racism and fascism in the U.K. Crucially, EHE sees these small donations as an enormous act of resistance: “There’s something really powerful about the idea of small actions funded by small donations taking on the world’s richest man. There is a global movement of people who won’t stand for his fascism and nonsense.”
THR spoke to one of the people behind Everyone Hates Elon, discussing Europe’s resistance to what’s happening in the States, taking on furious Tesla buyers and giving the world the agency to stand up to Musk’s politics: “If we can do anything to make billionaires losers again, that would be amazing. … He’s a gruesome man, and we all need to come together to stop him having this incredible influence over all of our lives.”
Are you comfortable telling me where you’re based and how many of you there are?
We’re spread around the U.K. … There’s just a handful of us, a very small group of friends. We’ve been doing different campaigns together for a couple years now. And at the beginning of this year, we saw Elon Musk sticking his oar in and demanding new elections in the U.K., campaigning to free Tommy Robinson from prison. We just got really angry about it. We thought a billionaire shouldn’t get to interfere in our democracy just because he owns Twitter. And then it escalated after he did that salute at Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Was that salute the catalyst in kickstarting your campaign?
Well, we were already wanting to do something because of him getting involved in British politics and demanding elections in the U.K. He tweeted, “Free Tommy Robinson” [and] he’s been tweeting, “Make Europe Great Again.” He’s the richest person in the world. He’s got $200 billion richer last year while nurses in this country have to use food banks. And he thinks he’s got a right to talk about what British people need or want. We don’t think he knows anything about the U.K. or about where we live. So initially, we started conversations at the beginning of January and it was more about that, but it was the salute that was the catalyst to start doing something.
We basically launched after that. We called the [fundraiser] People Versus Elon, where people can pledge a penny every time he tweets and we donate the money to causes he hates. We’re about to hit 1000 people pledging on that, and that’s going to lead to around ￡150,000 ($190,000) raised this year so far. And it’s just kind of exploded from there.
You’ve already raised ￡150,000?
We will have raised that by next year, because it’s all regular donors. We’ve raised about ￡12,000 ($15,275) in the first month.
We’ve had lots of people giving small amounts. We’d love to fund many more of these actions through small donations from ordinary people. Because I think there’s something really powerful about the idea of small actions funded by small donations taking on the world’s richest man.
What kind of causes are you donating to — which are the ones you’ve highlighted as causes that Elon really hates?
We’re working with a group called Everyday Racism and we’re working with two refugee groups. One of them is called Rainbow Migration, which, even just as a name, is the kind of thing he would absolutely hate. And then Women for Refugee Women, a group supporting women refugees, and a group supporting queer refugees, LGBTQI+ refugees. Also Hope Not Hate, who tackle far-right extremism in the U.K. So groups that support trans people, migrants and refugees, groups that tackle racism and hate in the U.K.
Have you noticed any high-profile or famous figures supporting your cause?
Stephen King posted our poster the other day on Bluesky, which was pretty amazing to see. The Guilty Feminist did a podcast about our People Versus Elon campaign. A few comedians have posted, too.
Can I ask, are you in your 20s, 30s?
I’d rather not say.
Not a problem. So tell me about how the “Swasticar” poster came to be. It’s getting you some momentum.
So we saw Elon Musk doing that salute at Donald Trump’s inauguration. We felt like we had to do something. We wanted to call it out and call out his hypocrisy. It’s one of these situations where we’re sitting here thinking, how do you hurt the richest man in the world?
His wealth mostly comes from Tesla. Of course, his other wealth comes from SpaceX, where there’s government contracts and things like that. But Tesla is something that the public votes on. Every time someone buys a Tesla, they’re voting for Elon Musk and what he stands for. He showed the world what he stood for when he stood up at Donald Trump’s inauguration. And we think everybody should know what he stands for and should stand against that by not buying Teslas. So we were trying to think about creative ways to do that and to make that point. Firstly, we went to a Tesla showroom with a cardboard cutout of him doing the salute, and stood in front of customers who were getting ready to buy a Tesla. One of them got really angry at us and basically told us to fuck off. And that video got a couple million views on TikTok. Then the other one was … OK, Elon, if you’re going to show the world who you are, let’s show the world who Tesla really is, and obviously he wants to make the parallels to Nazi Germany with that salute. So he got us half the way there.
It’s coincided at a time where Tesla’s sales in Europe have plummeted — for a number of different reasons. But European political leaders are trying to distance themselves from the Trump-Musk regime in the U.S. Do you think there’s more resistance to Elon Musk over here?
I think there’s resistance all over the world. Honestly, when we started this, we thought we were going to be doing a campaign about Elon Musk getting involved in U.K. politics and standing against that. And what we found, actually, is that people all over the world have been showing their support. I can see who is looking at our content on our social media channels. We’ve been selling ‘Don’t Buy a Swasticar’ stickers. Over half the orders have come from around the world, not just Europe, but from the U.S., from Canada, Australia. People have been sending messages of support. So I think it is true that Europe really stands against Musk and everything he represents. But I also think there is a global movement of people who won’t stand for his fascism and nonsense.
What is the end goal for Everyone Hates Elon? What are you capable of doing?
I think we want to show that ordinary people can fight back against billionaire power and annoy Elon Musk one small action at a time. If we can do anything to make billionaires losers again, that would be amazing. More seriously, I think we’re fed up with billionaires interfering in our politics, and we’re calling it out. And I think every single person can do something. I think one of the big messages we’re getting from people, and one of the things we were feeling in January, is that it can feel really powerless when you read the news about what Elon Musk is doing. You think, how does someone like me stand up to someone so wealthy? We want to show people that it’s not just us taking actions. We want to find ways to give other people a chance to resist. So if they donate, we’ll send them a PDF of the poster. We’re selling stickers, we’re giving people ways to show people they have agency and power.
Are you worried at all about law enforcement when it comes to your protesting?
No comment on that one.
Have you been looking on at what’s happening in the States in horror?
Anybody who has gotten involved with the campaign, who’s given money, who has shared the videos online, who has watched the TikToks — all of those interactions come from this feeling of disgust and horror about what’s happening and who Elon Musk is and what he represents. This is a man who will tweet pictures of an empty office complaining that there’s no one there on a Monday while his ex-partner [singer Grimes] goes viral for saying [in now-deleted X posts] he’s not listening to her as she’s asking him to pay medical bills for their child, and he’s not responding so she’s having to do it publicly.
He’s a gruesome man, and we all need to come together to stop him having this incredible influence over all of our lives. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we didn’t have to ever think about him ever again? That’s the goal. A world where we don’t have to ever think about Elon Musk ever again. It would be wonderful.
You’ve accrued millions of views on TikTok and Instagram. Are you encouraged by the reaction so far?
We didn’t have any plans to even necessarily do what we’re doing this long. We just thought, let’s try something out and see how it goes. But the response has been absolutely incredible and has blown us away. That tells us we’re not alone. There’s so many people who’ve been feeling what we’ve been feeling this past couple of months and that gives us the strength and resolve to keep going.
Is the idea to expand your group globally?
I would absolutely love to get there. I think we’ve got a long way to go. I’d love it if people can keep giving to our crowdfunder and we can keep pissing Elon Musk off one small action at a time. I don’t want to sound like a Premier League [soccer player] talking about focusing on the next game, but that’s kind of how it feels.
This is a real moment where people have had enough of billionaires getting involved in our politics and and we’d love to find ways to grow this movement. We encourage people to watch this space.
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