Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who recently inked a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, said on Wednesday, 19 May, that he will vote for the conservative Republican Party in upcoming United States elections as he can no longer support the Democrats.
"In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division and hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold," he wrote on Twitter.
This comes a day after Musk, an open critic of the Biden administration, said that political attacks against him would “escalate.”
He was opposed to a new tax on billionaires that Democrats in the US were considering in late 2021 to help with their social care programs. Musk also said he would reverse Twitter's ban on former US President Donald Trump when he buys the social media platform.
Talking about Twitter's left-leaning bias at a Miami tech conference earlier this week, Musk said that he classifies himself as a moderate and has voted "overwhelmingly" for Democrats historically.
‘ESG Is a Scam'
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Musk criticised S&P Global Ratings for kicking electric carmaker Tesla out of the S&P 500's ESG Index.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of standards for environmentally and socially conscious investors to assess a company’s behavior.
"Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social, and governance (ESG) by S&P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list! ESG is a scam. It has been weaponised by phony social justice warriors," he tweeted.
S&P in a blog post said that Tesla’s “lack of a low-carbon strategy” and “business conduct” codes affected its score, along with reports of racism and poor working conditions reported at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California.
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