Analysis of Elon Musk's posts on X reveals the change from 'political entrepreneur' to 'vocal Trump supporter'



Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, acquired Twitter (now Twitter) in October 2022, claiming to 'protect freedom of speech.' At the time of writing, Musk has a strong impression of repeatedly making political statements in his posts on Twitter, but a report analyzing Musk's posts on Twitter published by the daily economic newspaper The Wall Street Journal shows how Musk, who was once an 'entrepreneur who avoided political references,' has transformed into a 'vocal Trump supporter.'

Elon Musk's Hard Turn to Politics, in 300,000 of His Own Words - WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musk-politics-trump-social-media-267d34c8



How the Journal Analyzed Elon Musk's Posts on X - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musk-politics-analysis-06a5b9e4

In July 2024, after Republican candidate Donald Trump, who was running for president in the 2024 election, was shot, Musk stated on X, 'I fully support President Trump.' At the time of writing, this post had been viewed more than 210 million times and had 2.37 million likes.



At the time of writing, Musk is one of Trump's most influential supporters. However, the Wall Street Journal points out that Musk did not actively make political statements on social media from the beginning, but that his political statements increased over time. In fact, the Journal published a report analyzing a total of approximately 42,000 messages and replies posted by Musk on X, including his time on Twitter, from 2019 to the end of July 2024.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk posted about 13,000 posts between January and July 2024, which is almost the same number as all posts from January to December 2023. In 2019, the number of posts per day was about 9, but in 2024, the number of posts per day was about 61, suggesting that Musk is spending a lot more time and effort on X. In addition, all of Musk's posts over the past five years have totaled about 1.5 million words, which is about twice the number of words in the King James Bible .

The Wall Street Journal used Google's AI tool to map Musk's posts below. The red dots at the top are 'posts about Joe Biden and Trump,' the blue dots in the lower left are 'posts about SpaceX,' and the green dots near the center are 'posts about Tesla.'



If we map just the posts from 2019, we can see that most of the posts are about Tesla and SpaceX, and there are very few political posts.



However, the posts in 2024 are biased toward the upper side, suggesting that Musk's topics are shifting to political topics. In 2024, Musk's monthly posts containing political terms are about 230 times higher than in 2019. Posts containing business terms have also more than doubled, but the proportion of these in total posts has decreased, the Wall Street Journal points out.



As of 2019, Musk said , 'I am an avowed moderate,' but the Wall Street Journal cited the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as a trigger for his change in stance. In March 2020, when American states were considering city lockdowns, Musk posted, 'Coronavirus panic is ridiculous,' and received more than 1 million likes. This was Musk's first post to receive more than 1 million likes.



In subsequent posts, Musk criticized the government's lockdown and argued with local authorities over the resumption of operations at Tesla factories. Around this time, Musk began to express dissatisfaction with 'unelected officials,' and his posts gradually became more politically charged. In 2021, Musk repeatedly clashed with President Joe Biden and other Democrats, claiming that the government was treating Tesla unfairly, and his critical tone toward the Democratic Party became more prominent.

The Wall Street Journal has picked out five major topics that Musk has frequently mentioned since 2022: 'Freedom of speech and the news media,' 'Ukraine,' 'Gender and race,' 'Immigration,' and 'Trump and Biden,' and analyzed each topic as follows.

Freedom of Speech and the News Media
Of Musk's posts in 2022, more than 250 mentioned phrases such as 'freedom of speech,' 'fake information,' and 'media.' Musk accused Twitter at the time of having a 'strong left-wing bias' and announced his acquisition of Twitter under the banner of freedom of speech. The acquisition was completed in October, and was met with praise from users who were dissatisfied with the state of Twitter at the time. In 2022 alone, there were about 900 posts containing the name 'Twitter,' which is about twice the number of posts containing 'Tesla' during the same period. In particular, in November, immediately after the acquisition, about 36% of posts mentioned Twitter.

In a May 2022 post, Musk said, 'In the past I voted for the Democrats because they were (largely) the party of kindness. But they have become the party of division and hate, so I can no longer support them and from now on I will vote for the Republicans. Now watch as their dirty tricks campaign against me unfolds,' making his differences with the Democratic Party clear.



Ukraine
Musk has also become more vocal on international affairs, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Musk expressed support for Ukraine early on and helped make satellite internet Starlink available in Ukraine . However, in October, as the war dragged on, he angered Ukraine by conducting a survey that included a proposal to cede Crimea to Russia depending on the election results.

Elon Musk conducts a Twitter survey about the Russia-Ukraine war, infuriating the Ukrainian ambassador - GIGAZINE


By Steve Jurvetson

In 2023, he replied, reposted, or quoted at least 18 times to foreign leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Musk is more likely to interact with accounts that focus on political commentary than with general user accounts, and in particular, he has interacted with the account ' @EndWokeness ', which is critical of liberals, more than 470 times.

Musk has also used the word ' Woke ' more than 400 times to criticize liberals, and in a March 2024 post said, 'This is a life-or-death battle against the anti-civilizational 'Woke Mind Virus.' My position is centrist. Does assertion like 'secure borders,' 'safe and clean cities,' 'not bankrupting America with spending,' 'all racism is wrong,' and 'banning sterilization under the age of consent' make you right-wing?'



Gender and Race
Musk has also been vocal about gender and diversity, one of the reasons being that one of his children is transgender and applied for a sex change to a woman in 2022. In an interview distributed in July 2024, when a medical professional asked for consent to administering puberty suppressants to his child, Musk said, 'I was essentially tricked into signing the paperwork before I understood what was going on. I was very confused at the time. I was told that if I didn't sign it, my child might commit suicide.'

Musk has also posted critical comments about 'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI),' posting in December 2023, 'DEI must die. The key is to end discrimination, not replace it with another.' According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 1,400 of the posts since 2023 contained 'DEI,' 'racist,' 'trans,' 'gender,' or similar words related to race, gender, and sexuality.



Immigration
Musk has also expressed negative views on immigration, posting in February 2024, 'Biden's strategy is very simple: 1: Keep as many illegals in the country as possible. 2: Give them legal rights so they form a permanent majority and create a one-party state. That's why the Democrats encourage so much illegal immigration. Simple, yet effective.'



Trump and Biden
In 2024, he made more references to Trump and Biden in relation to the 2024 US presidential election, and after Trump was shot, he clearly supported Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk plans to donate $45 million (about 6.5 billion yen) per month to Trump support groups, and while Musk denied this, he did acknowledge the donations themselves.

Elon Musk denies reports that he plans to donate $45 million a month to Trump support groups, but admits to the donations themselves - GIGAZINE



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