The blurriness of Elon Musk’s politics is turning the world’s richest man into both a hero and boogeyman in some of the nation’s most polarizing debates.
Republicans have recently heralded Mr. Musk — who has described himself as “half Democrat, half Republican” — as a champion of free speech and forward-thinking enterprise.
Democrats have painted him a misguided tax cheat who exemplifies the ugly underbelly of an economic system that favors the rich at the expense of the poor.
The focus on Mr. Musk’s vision intensified after the news broke that the South African-born billionaire is buying Twitter and, if successful, plans to loosen the popular social media platform’s censorship rules.
“For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally,” he said on Twitter this week.
Democrats loathe the idea. Republicans love it.
SEE ALSO: Knives out for Elon Musk on Capitol Hill following his acquisition of Twitter
Indeed, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, on Thursday invited Mr. Musk to Capitol Hill to participate in a round table discussion to meet prominent individuals who have been “unjustly banned” from Twitter.
“I am cautiously optimistic about the prospects for Twitter now that Elon Musk has taken over. I don’t know Mr. Musk but I do invite him to come talk with me in Washington, DC, I’d be happy to put together a roundtable of all the most brilliant people who have been unjustly banned from Twitter,” Mrs. Greene told reporters at a press conference.
“He can see for himself the urgent necessity of doing right by them, which we all hope he will, as he has stated that he believes in free speech,” she said.
Former President Donald Trump and Mrs. Greene both have been booted off Twitter for violating their policies.
Democrats, meanwhile, insist social media platforms need more, not less, regulation.
They warn the spread of misinformation is poisoning politics and blame it for helping to fuel the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Musk also has drawn the ire of Democrats for criticizing coronavirus lockdowns and the Biden administration’s electric vehicle policies for playing favorites with labor unions.
At the same time, Mr. Musk, who became a U.S. citizen in 2002, has said he donates to members of both parties to keep a dialogue with Democrats and Republicans.
He also criticized Mr. Trump for imposing a travel ban on predominately Muslim countries and leaving the Paris climate accord.
“To be clear, I am not a conservative,” Mr. Musk tweeted in 2018. “Am registered independent [and] politically moderate.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m moderate about all issues,” he said. “Humanitarian issues are extremely important to me [and] I don’t understand why they are not important to everyone.”
On Thursday he posted a graphic on Twitter of stick figures on a line representing the political spectrum from the progressive left to the conservative right. The stick figure Mr. Musk labeled “me” moved from center-left in 2008 to right of center in 2021, while a stick figure labeled “woke ‘progressives’” sprinted away from him to the left.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
Outside the increasingly hyper-partisan Washington, Mr. Musk’s rugged individualism is winning him adulation.
Warren Buffett, chair of Berkshire Hathaway who has said he is a Democrat, recently marveled at how Mr. Musk has made Tesla a leading player in the auto industry.
“He has an idea, and he is winning,” Mr. Buffett said in a recent interview with Charlie Rose. “That is America. You can’t dream it up. It is astounding.”
Back on Capitol Hill, Mr. Musk is nonetheless facing renewed skepticism from lawmakers over the Twitter deal, including from Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, who is open about receiving donations from him and met with him on multiple occasions.
Asked about the simmering criticism, the Illinois Democrat said he “wouldn’t say I dislike him.”
“I question his conclusions and judgments and I worry about where this Twitter thing is going to go,” he said. “He is rich enough to make it into whatever he wants to make it, and I hope in the end he doesn’t sponsor or feed misinformation.”
Other Democrats have been more critical and tied their grievances to the popular liberal idea that Mr. Musk and other mega-wealthy individuals should be paying more into the federal coffers to help pay for their progressive platforms.
“It says a lot about the deep economic inequality in our country that a billionaire like Elon Musk can buy a massive social media platform on a whim while families across America are struggling to afford medication, gas, and groceries,” Rep. Marie Newman said in a fundraising email this week. “So I propose a new rule: if you’re rich enough to buy Twitter, we can tax you fairly so that we can provide healthcare for all, establish universal childcare, and implement transformative climate action.”
Rana Abdelhamid, a far-left candidate for Congress in New York’s 12th Congressional District, took her complaints against Mr. Musk to none other than Twitter.
“Since this is probably the last day I can tweet this, can I just remind folks that Elon Musk is a union-busting billionaire who inherited money from his dad’s apartheid-era emerald mines?” she said. “Tax the rich + unionize Twitter now!”
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the first name of candidate Rana Abdelhamid.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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