Elon Musk said, I prefer to stay away from politics. When the technical exec was forced to respond to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s claim that he supported the state’s anti-abortion laws.
During his more than decade of public fame as chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, the South-African-born tycoon has worked everything from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders to COVID regulations, trade unions and pronouns through individual regulatory authorities.
He revealed months of criticism of US President Joe Biden, saying that in the past he voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, but will now support Republicans in at least one future election.
In the past I voted for Democrats because they were a kind party but they have become a party of division and hatred so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.
It came after last year hammering Mr Biden’s key infrastructure and social spending bills for giving unnecessary subsidies to the electric car industry and widening the crazy federal budget deficit and later calling the president a damp puppet in human form.
A month later he went ahead, revealing that he had voted for the Republican nominee and suggesting that the GOP would support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis if he ran for the White House.
Responding later, Mr DeSantis scoffed at the South African-born billionaire’s comments. I am focused on 2022 but what I will say with Elon Musk is that I welcome the support of African Americans.
Whatever his vote, the exact politics of the 50-year-old has been difficult to decide at first. He has often donated to both Democrats and Republicans, declaring himself liberal, socialist and socially liberal and economically conservative.
He launched an extraordinary offer to buy all of Twitter for $54.20 per share (about $44 billion), arguing that the social network’s management is too left-wing and free speech to the online public square.
On Tuesday 4 October, Mr Musk told Twitter that he intended to follow through with his initial offer to buy the company for $44bn, with the deal expected to be completed by Friday, 28 October.
So what does Elon Musk really believe? And given that he is the second richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $219bn (£167bn), what does this mean for the rest of us?
Musk’s description of his politics has been confusing at times. The most consistent theme has been that he is socially liberal and economically conservative or even socially very liberal. He claims to be registered as an independent and to be clear, I am not a conservative.
In April he posted a stick figure cartoon on Twitter that showed political moderates positioning themselves firmly across the political spectrum, while promoting left-wing extremism and taking center ground and moderates away.
He described himself as a utopian anarchist of the kind described by Ian Banks, referring to the late Scottish science fiction writer who had long been a space-enthusiast anarchist socialist. Suspiciously called a culture that has no money.
He claimed to be socialist, but not the kind that transfers resources from the most productive to the least productive. Later he said that we should not take it too seriously.
Instead, let’s put Mr. Musk’s money in his mouth and look at his political donations. Elon Musk has given a total of $1.2 million to politicians, parties, political action committees and referendum campaigns since 2002, according to data collected by non-profit lobbying watchdog Open Secrets.
The money almost equally went to the Democrats with $542,000 and the Republicans with $574,500. Another $85,000 went to two widely left-wing referendum campaigns in California. The rest of the years had ups and downs. Whereas in 2015 he specifically gave to the Democrats.
He has donated a total of $30,000 to the PAC founded by SpaceX, which has donated 54 percent of its total to Democrats and 46 percent to Republicans. Many of the individual politicians he cited were state legislators in California where Tesla was previously located and Texas. Where SpaceX has long maintained rocket test and launch facilities.