Elon Musk Is Prepared For Backlash After Disclosing Political Leaning

Billionaire Elon Musk just disclosed whether he plans to vote Democrat or Republican and is fully prepared for the backlash he's going to receive.

He's been pretty vocal that he used to vote Democrat in the past, most notably around 2008. He revealed that he started leaning more to the right in 2012, and by 2021, he felt that he was now firmly in the conservative camp after complaining that the left was going too far left.

Although he joked about "owning the libs" earlier in the week, Musk decided to end the question of his political leanings once and for all and declare that he was voting Republican in the next election.

On Wednesday, Musk tweeted, "In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold … 🍿"

Many expressed concern for Musk being so critical about the left, considering that he previously said that Twitter must be "politically neutral" in order to earn the "public trust."

In late April, he tweeted, "For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally."

Many are wondering if Musk's new political disclosure means that things are going to change for Twitter, especially since he took shots at "the libs"earlier in the week.

Last Saturday, Musk tweeted, "Whoever thought owning the libs would be cheap never tried to acquire a social media company!"

He followed it up by saying, "At least, that’s what the lib hivemind thinks haha"

Musk seems to know exactly what kind of backlash he's going to receive for his outspoken political views. A few hours before his announcement that he was going to vote Republican, Musk tweeted, "Political attacks on me will escalate dramatically in coming months."

It’s not clear how much of Musk’s political disclosure is based on his anger towards the S&P 500 ESG Index after Tesla was removed from its list. ESG stands for “Environmental, Social, Governance” and is a standard for investors to rank companies based on their environmental, social, and governance scores.

Before his political disclosure, Musk tweeted, "Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social & governance (ESG) by S&P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list!"

"ESG is a scam," he added. "It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors."

"@SPGlobalRatings has lost their integrity," he later added.

Later on  in the day, Musk retweeted a meme and described an ESG score: “It determines how compliant your business is with the leftist agenda.”

"Despite Tesla doing more for the environment than any company ever!" Musk tweeted.

However, one user slammed Musk by providing their own definition, writing, “It’s a group that hates Elon. It stands for Elon Sucks Group.”

Another user asked, "Who doesn't hate Musk by now?"

Although Musk still has plenty of supporters in his corner, he seems to be aware that the tide of public opinion may be turning against him. But the question still persists as to whether or not he plans to be the new owner of Twitter.