Tesla CEO and PayPal billionaire Elon Musk surprised many Friday when he declared on Twitter that he is a socialist. Conservative critics, however, may well have agreed, given his companies’ reliance on the state.
Musk tweeted his declaration Friday after first tweeting that socialists have no sense of humor:
When challenged to define his own ideology, however, Musk said he was a “socialist”:
He then expanded on that declaration, adding a joke:
Musk then responded to the latter tweet by declaring:
Left-wing critics on Twitter weren’t having it:
Conservatives have often criticized Musk in the past for relying heavily on government for his companies’ success. Tesla, for example, has consistently lost money — except where it has been able to sell carbon emissions permits provided by the State of California. It also received a loan from the federal government during the bailout era in 2009.
Last week, Musks’s Boring Company won a bid with another government, the City of Chicago, to build a “hyperloop” train from downtown to O’Hare International Airport.
However, poor production at Tesla, and recent reports of technical problems — such as the car of actress Mary McCormack’s husband allegedly shooting flames in traffic — have hurt the company, and put Musk under heavy public pressure.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.