Elon Musk was a major supporter of Barack Obama. Hell, he probably would have voted for Obama for a third term if he could. But since then, the loony left has driven Musk rightward, as the world’s richest person has explained in cartoon form. In May, Musk said that because Democrats “have become the party of division & hate” he would start voting Republican. And on Wednesday, he revealed that he is currently leaning toward supporting Florida governor Ron DeSantis for president in 2024.
Apparently DeSantis, he of the “Don’t Say Gay” law and the whole “punishing companies who get on his bad side” thing, counts as the kind of “moderate” Musk has repeatedly said he prefers.
The Tesla CEO also tweeted that, as promised, he cast a ballot Tuesday for a Republican candidate in his relatively new home base of Texas.
The candidate he supported, Mayra Flores, has questioned the 2020 election results and included QAnon hashtags in social-media posts. Nevertheless, she flipped a Democratic-leaning district Tuesday (though she’ll probably only represent the area for a few months because of redistricting).
Musk’s politics have not always been easy to pin down over the years; he supported Democrat Andrew Yang for president in 2020 (he said Wednesday that DeSantis has “a better chance of winning” than Yang). But on Twitter, his preferred social-media platform, which he’s also maybe on the cusp of buying, he spends much of his time railing against liberals, insulting Democratic lawmakers, sometimes crudely, and engaging with prominent far-right voices such as Ian Miles Cheong, Mike Cernovich, and Benny Johnson.
But though Musk seems to be friendly with Trumpy elements of the GOP and has vowed that Donald Trump will be allowed back on Twitter if his deal to purchase the company goes through, he has never endorsed the 45th president in political terms. Right now, DeSantis is the one Republican challenger who appears to have a chance against Trump in a Republican primary, and Musk’s tentative endorsement will only solidify that reality.
When asked about Musk’s comment, DeSantis offered the usual line about focusing on the next election but added a rather odd joke making reference to Musk’s South African origins:
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