Elon Musk’s recent attacks on Democrats have drawn mockery from an unexpected source: celebrity chef and activist José Andrés.
Mr Musk, reportedly the world’s richest man, tweeted on Wednesday that Democrats had “become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.”
“In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party,” Mr Musk added. “Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold.”
The comments, which came after similar remarks made by Mr Musk at a Miami technology conference on Tuesday, drew a teasing response from Mr Andrés.
“I think someone has taken over your tweeter account,” wrote Mr Andrés on Wednesday in response to Mr Musk’s tweet. “Please report, we need to build longer tables, with democrats and republicans of good will coming together to keep building our democracy!
“But to finger point Democrats for hate…well,obviously you’ve been hacked!”
Mr Musk told the All-In tech conference on Tuesday that while he had voted “overwhelmingly” for Democrats in past elections, he would not be for “this election” and that Republicans would have his vote.
“I have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, historically,” Mr Musk said. “Like I’m not sure, I might never have voted for a Republican, just to be clear. Now this election I will”.
It was not clear whether Mr Musk was referring to this year’s midterms or the 2024 election for president, when Joe Biden is expected to stand for a second term.
The Tesla CEO accused the Democrat on Tuesday of relying heavily on a “teleprompter” and not getting “a lot done” because he “s simply too much captured by the unions, which was not the case with Obama”.
Many accused Mr Musk of hypocrisy for calling out Mr Biden’s support for unions, given that the SpaceX founder is estimated to be worth $218bn (£175bn), according to Forbes.
Others also pointed to the so-called “Big Lie” and the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol as an example of Republicans stoking “division & hate” - words he used to describe Democrats.
“One party tried to overthrow the government. The other one just wants billionaires to pay taxes and people to have healthcare,” tweeted liberal American political action committee MeidasTouch.
“You have fallen so deep into the far right algorithms that you have lost all sense of reality,” the group added. “Nobody is out to get you. They just want to be left alone.”
Mr Musk has recently put his $44bn (£35bn) takeover bid of Twitter on hold after promising to restore “free speech” and reduce left wing “bias” on the social media platform, whose CEO he sent a poo emoji this week.
The billionaire has asked the company to prove less than five per cent of its users are so-called “spam bots”, in a spat that could lead to the deal being dropped or lowered in price, analysts suggest.
