Expert explains Elon Musk’s bizarre tweet to rename the English Channel the 'George Washington Channel'

Following Donald Trump's plan to rename the Gulf of Mexico, Elon Musk proposed a similar idea—much to the confusion of many Brits.

Recently, he put out a perplexing tweet suggesting that the English Channel ought to be renamed the 'George Washington Channel', and this one fell into the 'downright confusing' category.

To try and work out what this was supposed to mean, LADbible spoke to Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

He said that much of what Musk puts out on social media 'is an attempt to create clout on his own platform' - you'll remember that Musk bought Twitter before renaming it to X.

"Often it'll be reacting to a meme that he's seen from some fringe poster. It will be an attempt to get attention, to game the algorithm to to give him lots of dopamine inducing sycophantic posts of approval," Ahmed said.

"One of the weird things about X is that it's a platform that really rewards not facts or news or insight or a useful discourse, but rather whatever induces the most, the strongest reaction.

Perhaps the confusion is the point (X/@elonmusk)

"The fact that you guys are looking at it is indicative of the fact that it just gets people talking and thinking and wondering 'what on Earth is he thinking?'.

"The way the algorithms work has increasingly been gamed by people because of its its tendency to reward disinformation, s**t-posting and hate.

"It's a remarkable feature of modernity that trolling has become a means for has become a means for fame and amplification on one the world's most important platforms. It's indicative of the overall corruption of our public discourse, from seriousness to utter bat-s**ttery."

As for why Musk picked George Washington, the first president of the US and its founding hero, Ahmed said that it was 'jingoism' and 'a hackneyed attempt to seek approval from American trolls' by the South African.

George Washington has little to do with the English Channel. Ahmed said it was an attempt to 'seek approval from American trolls' (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

He said: "It would be the equivalent of Keir Starmer saying they're gonna rename Washington DC to Winston Churchill DC.

"It's almost so hackneyed and cliché an attempt because there is no connection between George Washington and the English Channel."

The CCDH boss said that seeing the social media activity of Musk 'creating all this distraction' is the point, with Ahmed likening his activity and that of Donald Trump's to a scene from a heist movie where many things are going on but they're serving as distractions to the really important stuff.

"You've got Musk creating all this distraction, fireworks going off. The slot machines have been rigged to pay out, the fire alarms go off, but it's because he's drilling into the vault.

"His aim is, of course, to enrich himself. His aim is always to enrich himself. Musk is seeking to enrich himself through the work that DOGE is doing to strip back regulations that protect American consumers and American democracy."

DOGE is the new Department of Government Efficiency, which was set up by Trump and is headed up by Musk to cut US government spending.

Ahmed says it's more important to focus on what he's doing rather than what he's tweeting about (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

It's already been sued numerous times over concerns that it's not following the rules for an advisory body, though Trump has said it is operating 'within' the US government.

Ahmed spoke of the importance of looking beyond the 'chaff' to make sure the focus remained on what people in power were 'actually doing', saying: "It's really important that we remain laser focused on what it is that they're actually doing. Because all of this is like chaff, trying to distract us.

"The media, politicians and advocacy and watchdog groups like CCDH need to remain laser focused on what it is that he's actually doing.

"Because those will be the things that really hurt the American people and people and people around the world, rather than all of this childish, pointless, silly, frippery."

Musk recently addressed the far-right German party AfD (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Among the things Musk is currently doing is voicing his support for the German far-right party AfD, having told them to move beyond 'past guilt' and calling them 'the best hope for Germany'.

Musk has also been criticised by the Anti Defamation League over making various Nazi 'jokes' on social media after making that distinctive salute earlier this month.

As for his work with DOGE, Musk had previously claimed that he cut about $2 trillion in spending, but later revised that down to $1 trillion.

His attempts to hit that target will make that 'laser focus' on what he's actually doing all the more important.