Elon Musk targets English Channel after renaming Gulf of Mexico
Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk proposed renaming the English Channel to the ‘George Washington Canal’ after America’s first president.
After suggesting changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America,’ arguing it has a ‘beautiful ring to it’, the tech mogul has made yet another stir in the international pot.
Sharing a map of the Channel with the proposed new name on X, he said: ‘New name for the water that separates England and France.’
His post may be about the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the US and its geographical isolation from the rest of Europe.
Whatever the reason, the Tesla and X owner did not explain further why the Channel should supposedly be renamed.
This is not the first time that Musk has attempted to destabilise politics in the UK, using his social media platform X as his personal megaphone and spreading disinformation.
At the start of 2025, he posted a slew of attacks aimed at Sir Keir Starmer over grooming gangs in the country, accusing him of being ‘complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes’.
He is also showing interest in Germany’s politics, working to make the far-right – and anti-immigration – AfD party go mainstream ahead of February’s elections.
Less than a week after he was accused of making several Nazi saluted at Trump’s inauguration, the billionaire appeared via a video-link in front of4,500 party supporters in the central city of Halle.
‘It is good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,’ he told them to ‘move beyond past guilt’ referring to the war crimes of Nazi Germany.
Musk’s support for AfD – which has come primarily in the form of posts on X, but also in newspaper op-eds and speeches – has lifted what was once a fringe political party up in front of a global audience.
He also previously hosted leader Alice Weidel in an interview on X, raising concerns of election meddling.
Dr Tambini, LSE expert in media and communications regulation, argued that what lies behind Musk’s meddling is not some deep-seated ideological affinity but ‘blatant’ economic interest.
He explained that his ‘whole house of cards’ may collapse if X is in any way undermined by EU and UK regulation.
Dr Tambini said: ‘If we examine the current state of regulation in the EU and the UK, the erratic political meddling of the US entrepreneur, and his “heroic” stand on free speech, seem more rational.
‘Musk is on an all-out campaign to undermine EU regulation: by undermining the political balances of the EU, and by questioning the very definition of free speech.
‘The uncomfortable fact is that collaboration with factcheckers – which Musk rejected and has now enlisted Meta to campaign against – is what platforms must do under the new EU regime.’
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