Elon Musk, Tesla chief executive and would-be buyer of Twitter, has given himself a new title: Republican.
The world’s richest man declared in a tweet Wednesday that he is switching to the GOP.
The tweet followed comments earlier this week, where he suggested that he might vote Republican and where he lobbed his latest criticism at President Joe Biden’s administration, saying that it “doesn’t get a lot done.”
Musk has also expressed dismay at Biden’s reluctance to acknowledge Tesla’s prominence in the electric vehicle industry.
Musk has donated to candidates and political committees of both parties, but his giving has leaned more to Republicans in the past year. He’s has used his massive Twitter following to attack Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, all of whom have advocated higher taxes on billionaires.
Since his announcing his bid to buy Twitter and promise to make it more of a free speech platform — including restoring access to former President Donald Trump — he has become something of a hero for segments of the Republican party. Conservatives praised his $44 billion bid to take Twitter private, saying that he would eliminate the biases that they content social media companies have against them.
GOP Senator Ted Cruz, who represents Musk’s new home state of Texas, tweeted last month that Musk’s purchase of Twitter “is the most important development for free speech in decades.”
Musk said that it was “flat out stupid” for the platform to ban Trump after the former president’s supporters raided the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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