Last month, Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he was bailing out as a longtime supporter of Democratic political candidates because the party had morphed from “kindness” to “division and hate” and would, moving forward, cast his votes for Republicans.
Does Elon Musk support Trump? But in a virtual interview at a Bloomberg event on Tuesday, Musk waffled when asked if he would support former President Donald Trump, should Trump end up as the GOP’s 2024 candidate.
“I think I’m undecided at this point about that election,” Musk told Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the Qatar Economic Forum.
Last week, Musk hinted that he could be a supporter of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after tweeting about casting his vote for Florida GOP congressional candidate Mayra Flores.
In another tweet, Musk revealed he was leaning toward DeSantis, as his choice for the 2024 presidential election.
DeSantis is a high-profile Republican — acting as both a Trump ally and potential rival in the GOP presidential primary elections.
When the Florida governor was asked what he thought of Musk’s support, he said, “I’m focused on 2022, but with Elon Musk what I would say is, you know, I welcome support from African Americans. What can I say?” per CNBC. (Musk is originally from South Africa).
Just to add to the confusion, Musk has also said, should he become the new owner of Twitter, he would reverse Twitter’s ban on Trump, per Reuters.
What’s happening with the Twitter deal? In the Bloomberg interview, Musk also offered an update, sort of, on his bid to buy social media giant Twitter.
The 50-year-old billionaire and world’s richest person has a pending offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion, but put the deal on hold last month over his concerns about the number of fake accounts on the popular social media platform.
On Tuesday, Musk said there were three things holding up completion of the deal, including Twitter’s accounting of fake accounts, finding additional bank support (i.e. loans) to finance the deal and getting shareholders, who ultimately have the final say, to vote their support of his acquisition offer.
Regarding the fake account issue, Musk told Bloomberg, “We’re still awaiting a resolution on that matter, and that is a very significant matter,” per CNBC.
Is a recession on the horizon? Musk also shared some thoughts on a reeling U.S. economy that’s experiencing ongoing, record-high inflation that has yet to be impacted by aggressive monetary actions by the Federal Reserve.
“A recession is inevitable at some point,” Musk told Bloomberg. “As to whether there is a recession in the near term,” he added, “that is more likely than not.”
Musk’s remarks follow other top industry leaders who have voiced concerns that rising inflation and the Federal Reserve’s response may impact the economic growth the country has seen as it comes out of the COVID-19 pandemic, per The Hill. A recession is considered a time period in which the gross domestic product falls for at least two successive economic quarters.
Last week, the Fed raised benchmark interest rates by .75%, the largest increase since 1994. The move, following a dismal federal inflation report earlier this month, sent U.S. stock markets down sharply and also helped fuel further losses in the cryptocurrency market.