Elon Musk Bites The Hand That Fed Him By Bashing California And Democrats

Musk has become more comfortable with his political views on the social media platform he craves.

California used to be the land of opportunity, and it is now a beautiful state, according to Musk. California has gone from a land of opportunity to the land of taxes, so it would not be possible to build a plant in the Golden State now.

Musk courted Democrats in California, where most of his customers live, as he built his company from a startup into the world's dominant electric-vehicle company. He and his company were helped by the party's policy and environmental priorities. In recent months, both before and since he began his pursuit of Twitter, Musk appeared to stray to the right, crossing swords with Democratic Senators, including Elizabeth Warren, over their proposals to raise taxes on billionaires.

Last year, Musk moved his company's headquarters from Silicon Valley to Texas to take advantage of lower taxes, lower cost of living and a more relaxed regulatory environment. Since then, his rhetoric has skewed even more towards the conservative side, and yesterday he announced his intention to vote for Republican politicians going forward.

In the past, I voted Democrat because they were mostly the kindness party.

California-bashing from Musk, the world's wealthiest person based on his stakes in the companies, is notable because his former home state is the best market for electric vehicles in North America. It's debatable whether the company could have survived its rocky early years without California's Zero-Emission Vehicle program, which created an opportunity for the company to sell emissions credits to other automakers that resulted in billions of dollars in free revenue over the years. The gift from Toyota of the plant in California was also helpful.

The former chair of California's powerful Air Resources Board said that nobody ever accused Musk of gratitude or even a sense of proportion.

“Nobody ever accused Elon Musk of gratitude—or even a sense of proportion”

The GOP welcomed Musk's newfound loyalty by immediately using it to raise money, although Musk hasn't elaborated on why he now sees Republicans as friendlier than the other party. Musk has made crude jokes about trans people and his opposition to plastic on his social media accounts.

Some conservatives were happy that the billionaire invited the former president back to his account. Musk's intention to make the platform welcoming for controversial views has boosted his popularity among outspoken politicians and commentators, including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz.

Prepare for blue check mark full scale meltdown afterelonmusk seals the deal and I should get my personal account restored.

Texas is the capital of America's oil and gas industry and not synonymous with the clean-tech endeavors Musk is associated with, but he praised its greater flexibility this week. The Lone Star State's further shift to the political right includes strict new policies on abortion, treatment of trans youth and voting rights, as well as relaxing rules on gun ownership.

Abbott told CNBC last year that Elon had to leave California because of its social policies.

Musk was unperturbed when asked if his views could hurt the company's image with consumers.

Ed Kim, an auto-industry analyst, says that his new conservative orientation has risks and a potential upside.

Conventional wisdom says that it's good for CEOs to stay away from expressing their politics, but that's not true, says Kim, president of AutoPacific.

The president's failure to reference Musk's company when praising U.S. manufacturers of electric vehicles is what caused Musk's frustration with Biden. Musk was excluded from the White House meetings to discuss battery and EV technology.

“Conventional wisdom says that it’s generally good business sense for CEOs to stay away from regularly expressing their politics, but Tesla has always bucked conventional wisdom in just about every way”

It was the Obama-Biden Administration that helped get the company off the ground. The Energy Department gave a $465 million low-interest loan to the company in January of 2010 so that it could set up a plant to make electric cars. The support from a Democratic administration was derided ascrony capitalism by the 2012 Republican.

In a March 2012 speech in Santa Barbara, Romney said that free enterprise is replaced with crony capitalism when government selects the winners and the loser.

Three of the four companies Romney referred to ended in bankruptcy, but the other two became the world's most valuable and top EV seller.

Regardless of Musk's comments, she is glad of California's impact onTesla.

I own a Model 3 and will always be proud that our regulations made him the world's richest man, while prodding all the others to move more aggressively into the age of electric transportation.