Twitter deal dumped! Is Elon Musk a smasher of elites or self-serving pragmatist?
He has scorned organized labor, mocked political correctness and espoused small government -- so conservatives may be disappointed that he wants to pull out of his deal to buy Twitter.
Yet smoking marijuana during interviews, courting Hollywood with movie cameos and musing about nuking Mars make Elon Musk an improbable talisman for political traditionalists.
In polarized America, the 51-year-old triple divorcee's opposition to Covid-19 restrictions is often taken to demonstrate Republican sympathies, although his disdain for draconian immigration control suggests the opposite.
The world's richest man has berated President Joe Biden for proposing a tax credit for electric cars produced by unionized workers. He has even called for an end to all US federal subsidies.
Yet he has aggressively pursued government support himself, taking billions in handouts for his own companies.
James Hickman, founder of the libertarian-leaning Sovereign Man newsletter, sees Musk as a check on the "tyranny of the minority" -- a supposed cabal of elites in tech, media and academia who make decisions for the rest of us and "consistently get it wrong."
"What makes someone a true libertarian is an outright rejection of labels and being completely independent in one's thinking," Hickman told AFP.
"Musk clearly qualifies in this regard."
Other analysts have suggested that, as inconsistent as his political philosophy appears, Musk rarely diverges from his business interests.
Meanwhile his political donations don't cleave to one party or point of view either.
A self-styled "moderate" independent -- although he has described himself as a "socialist" too -- Musk ostentatiously moved to deeply conservative Texas from ultra-liberal California
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