Explained: Is Elon Musk a Republican? Will Twitter take sides with Ron DeSantis link?

Even though the US presidential election is more than a year away, the race to be a Democrat or Republican nominee is heating up. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis became the latest politician to announce his presidential run. DeSantis, a Republican, will announce his presidential run on Wednesday (May 24) during a Twitter Spaces discussion with billionaire Elon Musk.

According to a report by the news agency Reuters, the event would be hosted at 6 pm ET (22.00 GMT) and the session will be moderated by tech entrepreneur David Sacks, a Musk confidant.

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This is the first time that such an announcement is being made on social media.

This event has renewed a debate about Elon Musk's political leanings. It has also raised whether Twitter will no more be a neutral arbiter, and whether will it take sides with the DeSantis link.

Is Elon Musk a Republican?

For a long time, people have questioned Elon Musk's political views. Musk, the world's richest man and the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, has had mixed political leanings. In the previous US presidential election in 2020, Musk said that he voted for Joe Biden. However, nearly two years later, Musk expressed support for the Republicans.

His tweet from May 2022 is the proof, "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.”

This tweet came after months of criticising President Joe Biden, which included hammering of his flagship infrastructure and social spending bills for granting subsidies to the electric car industry and increasing the federal budget deficit, as per a report by The Independent on December 14 last year.

Musk also called Biden a "damp sock puppet in human form" after the American president left Tesla out of a discussion regarding domestic electric vehicle (EV) production.

In June 2022, Musk revealed that he voted for Republican congressional candidate Maya Flores in a special election.

Musk has had a tumultuous relationship with former US president and Republican Donald Trump. However, in recent times, there seems an improvement. Donald Trump lauded Musk's takeover of Twitter last year by saying the social media giant was "in sane hands."

Musk, on the other hand, reinstated Trump's Twitter handle and told the Financial Times that the ban was a "morally bad decision" and foolish to the extreme. Trump was removed from Twitter following the 2021 Capitol Hill riots.

The above details do point out that Musk has a Republican-leaning. But he said on Tuesday that he would not endorse any candidate at this time. "My preference and I think the preference of most Americans is really to have someone fairly normal in office. But I think we'd all be quite, quite happy with that, actually. You know, I think someone that is representative of the moderate views that I think most country holds, in reality," he told the Wall Street Journal.

However, the story doesn't end here.

Musk's support for DeSantis in 2024

On November 26 last year, nearly a month after he became the boss of Twitter, Musk tweeted that he was a significant supporter of the Obama-Biden presidency and "(reluctantly) voted for Biden over Trump."

"But freedom of speech is the bedrock of a strong democracy and must take precedence. My preference for the 2024 presidency is someone sensible and centrist. I had hoped that would the case for the Biden administration, but have been disappointed so far," Musk added.

On being asked if he would support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis if he ran for president, Musk replied, "Yes." This came months after Musk said that DeSantis would easily defeat Biden in the election.

Twitter – an opportunity for DeSantis

Though it is not yet known what exactly would Floridan Governor Ron DeSantis reveal in his announcement of his presidential run, the hosting of the event on Twitter spaces is an opportunity for the Republican. Firstly, Twitter has a vast number of active users which could potentially give DeSantis' campaign more publicity. And secondly, Elon Musk's fan base would add to the Florida Governor's popularity.

And for his part, Musk sees the event as a coup, according to a report by BBC on Wednesday. Musk wants big moments like this to be broadcast live on Twitter and he is particularly interested in Twitter Spaces, where millions of people can tune into an interview.

"We'll be interviewing Ron DeSantis, and he has quite an announcement to make and it will be the very first time that something like this is happening on social media and with real-time questions and answers, not scripted. So it's going to be live and let it rip. Let's see what happens," Musk told the WSJ on Tuesday.

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