Elon Musk Will Say What He Wants, Even If It Costs Tesla Money
Tesla CEO Elon Musk insists that he’s allowed to say what he wants to say, regardless of its impact on Tesla or Twitter’s bottom line. During an interview with CNBC’s David Faber, Musk invoked his freedom of speech, but instead of decrying the consequences of saying whatever he wants has had on Tesla and Twitter’s profits, Musk suggested he simply doesn’t care.
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Musk doesn’t care if what he tweets or says drives away future or current Tesla owners. Nor does he care if major advertisers on Twitter are put off by his remarks. The billionaire and self-proclaimed free speech absolutist even went on to compare saying what he wants to Inigo Montoya’s (of The Princes Bride) quest for revenge, which could not be swayed or bribed. Per CNBC:
FABER: […] I mean, you know, do your tweets hurt the company? Are there Tesla owners who say I don’t agree with his political position because and I know it because he shares so much of it. Or are there advertisers on Twitter that Linda Yaccarino will come and say, you got to stop man or, you know, I can’t get these ads because of some of the things you tweet.
MUSK: You know, I’m reminded of a scene in “The Princess Bride.” Great movie.
FABER: Great movie.
MUSK: Where he confronts the person who killed his father. And he says, “Offer me money. Offer me power. I don’t care.”
FABER: So, you just don’t care. You want to share what you have to say?
MUSK: I’ll say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.
The former Twitter CEO’s remarks about saying what he wants come after Musk tweeted that George Soros reminded him of the X-Men supervillain, Magneto. Musk received some criticism for the tweet about his opinion of Soros, which Faber pressed him on, suggesting some things don’t belong in public discourse:
FABER: Okay but why share it? Why share it especially, I mean, why share it when people who buy Teslas may not agree with you, advertisers on Twitter may not agree with you. Why not just say, hey, I think this. You can tell me, we can talk about it over there. And you can tell your friends, but why share it widely?
MUSK: I mean, there’s freedom of speech. I’m allowed to say what I want to—
It seems Soros has upset Musk enough to elicit the public response on Twitter, which Musk owns. Incendiary remarks have often landed Musk in hot water with regulatory agencies in the U.S. (and beyond) and have even had a direct result on Tesla.
Musks’ comments and tweets have also had a direct result on Twitter, which lost out on a large part of its advertiser revenue after Musk became CEO. A number of major advertisers started to pull funding from the platform in the wake of changes enacted by Musk, as well as after being put off by his outspoken nature.
Even though Musk is no longer going to be CEO of Twitter now that Linda Yaccarino is taking over the role the helm, Musk is still committed to saying what he wants. He tells CNBC he’ll be able to again focus on Tesla and SpaceX more, but it’s unclear if his decision to step down is related to Twitter’s loss of ad revenue under his leadership. But even if it were, Musk apparently doesn’t care.
