Elon Musk's Political Party: Is He a Democrat or a Republican?

As was widely expected, Tesla’s CEO and soon-to-be Twitter owner Elon Musk has said that he would restore former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account. Conservatives have supported the move since they have found a new pal in Musk, who's a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist.” However, it has ignited the debate about Musk’s political views.

Musk has an opinion on almost everything under the sun even though many might not agree with his views. Many are wondering whether Musk is a Democrat or a Republican and which party he belongs to.

In 2014, Musk described himself as “half Democrat, half Republican.” Four years later, Musk categorically stated that he is a “registered independent” and called himself “politically moderate.”

Musk has been supportive of former President Barack Obama. He supported Hilary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. However, he's also said to be close to Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, who's a Republican. Musk moved Tesla’s headquarters to Texas and Abbott is calling upon the world’s richest person to also shift Twitter to the state.

Musk was critical of former President Donald Trump and said that he didn't believe Trump was fit to lead the country. However, he joined Trump’s advisory council only to leave it after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Deal.

Many see Musk as a libertarian since he's generally against government intervention in markets. It’s a different story altogether that Tesla has benefited greatly from the subsidies in the past. Tesla cars no longer get the federal tax credit in the U.S. but some of its models are eligible for a subsidy in China, a privilege otherwise reserved for domestic Chinese companies.

Musk described himself as a “socialist” and also supported Andrew Yang in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Yang mooted the idea of universal basic income. However, in practice, Musk has been far from being a socialist and his actions have been quite capitalist. Tesla still doesn't have a union and there have been several reports of employees being targeted for wanting to form a union.

In 2018, Musk categorically denied being a conservative. In April, he said that while he “strongly supported” Obama, “today’s Democratic Party has been hijacked by extremists.” Musk has been at odds with President Joe Biden and has been sulking at not being invited to the White House while heads of Ford and General Motors, which sell far fewer EVs, were invited to discuss scaling up EV production in the U.S.

Musk is a smart business leader and is pragmatic. He has supported politicians on both sides depending on how their policies aligned with his business interest. Musk inviting Trump to rejoin Twitter would also make perfect business sense for the social media company. This holds especially true as many conservatives have been pivoting to alternate social media platforms like Parler and more recently Trump’s Truth Social.