Elon Musk challenged accusations of aligning with Europe’s far-right during an interview this week with The Economist’s editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, by pointing to immigration speeches from prominent Democratic leaders that sound remarkably similar to current Republican rhetoric.
When Beddoes accused Musk of supporting far-right parties across Europe, the tech entrepreneur rejected the characterization and argued that policies the media now labels “far right” were considered mainstream Democratic positions just a decade or two ago.
“Yes, literally, you could go back 10 or 15 years and these policies were completely normal,” Musk said during the interview. He described what he called an “amusing trick” where people attribute old speeches by Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, only to watch critics condemn them as extreme before learning their actual source.
Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union
Musk’s argument finds support in the historical record. In his 1995 State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton told Congress that “All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country.”
Clinton went on to describe how illegal immigration affects American workers and taxpayers. “The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers,” he said, before detailing his administration’s efforts to secure the border through hiring more guards, increasing deportations of criminal aliens, and restricting welfare benefits.
The former president concluded that segment by emphasizing, “We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”
Obama and Hillary Clinton’s Earlier Stances
Hillary Clinton struck a similar tone during her 2008 presidential campaign. In May of that year, she advocated for what she called “tough conditions” on immigration, saying authorities should “tell people to come out of the shadows. If they’ve committed a crime, deport them. No questions asked, they’re gone.” She added that those seeking to remain in the country illegally would need to pay a “stiff fine,” back taxes, and “wait in line.”
President Obama echoed these themes in November 2014, stating that “mass amnesty would be unfair” while “mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character.” He then made a promise about enforcement: “If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported. If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up.”
The Shifting Political Landscape
Musk’s central argument is that the political spectrum hasn’t shifted rightward on immigration—rather, the Democratic Party has moved significantly to the left, leaving positions that were once bipartisan consensus to be relabeled as extreme.
According to reporting on the interview, Musk told Beddoes that he supports “normal people” and that applying the “far right” label to their views is “simply false.” When pressed on whether populist parties truly represent ordinary voters, he maintained that recent shifts in media framing have obscured how mainstream these positions were in the recent past.
The exchange highlights ongoing debates about how political positions are characterized in media coverage and public discourse. What Democratic presidents openly advocated for in the 1990s and 2000s—stricter border enforcement, deportation of criminals, and limits on benefits for those in the country illegally—now often draws accusations of extremism when proposed by Republican leaders.
The interview comes as immigration policy remains a divisive issue in both American and European politics, with enforcement-focused approaches facing criticism from progressive activists while retaining broad public support in polling.
Source: pjmedia.com — https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/07/24/yes-democrats-sounded-like-the-far-right-not-long-ago-n4955423
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