That’s what Elon Musk told CNBC David Faber on Tuesday that he doesn’t care if his inflammatory tweets scare away potential Tesla buyers or Twitter advertisers.
“I’m going to say what I want, and if the consequence is to lose money, so be it,” said Musk, who owns Twitter.
Musk has for years tweeted controversial things, including conspiracy theories and comments that his critics have called universally discriminatory.
His defense came after Musk faced renewed criticism for a tweet where he likened liberal billionaire and Democratic donor George Soros to X-Men villain Magnetoa Jewish survivor of the Holocaust.
“He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity,” Musk tweeted on Monday.
Musk has previously criticized Soros, whose family office, Soros Fund Managementrecently reduce its stake in Tesla. Soros, who is also Jewish, is a favorite target of right-wing pundits and politicians and a frequent target of anti-Semitic attacks. Soros and his family fled the Nazis during World War II.
Critics said Musk’s tweets about Soros fit into a larger pattern of attacks on the 92-year-old investor and Democratic donor. “Musk likening Soros to Magneto is not casual; it’s a nod to pernicious anti-Semitic tropes of Jewish global control,” tweeted Alex Goldenbergan analyst at the Network Contagion Research Institute. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairssimilarly, said Musk’s tweets had “anti-Semitic overtones.”
Musk denied on Tuesday that he is anti-Semitic. “I’m a Prosemite, if anything,” he said when Faber asked him about the criticism. Musk has also previously tweeted and deleted memes with Hitler.
Faber on Tuesday also asked Musk why he tweeted a link to someone who said a mass shooting at a Texas mall earlier this month could be part of “a bad psyop” or “psychological operation.”
Investigators have been looking into whether the shooter, who was killed by police, had expressed white supremacist views since he wore a “RWDS” tag, a reference to the phrase “Right Wing Death Squad.” used by extremists. He had that too Nazi tattoosincluding a swastika.
“I thought this ascribing to white supremacy was bulls—,” Musk said, adding that he doesn’t think there’s any evidence that the shooter was a white supremacist. “We shouldn’t attribute things to white supremacy if they’re — if it’s false.”
Since Musk took over Twitter last fall, the social media network has seen a sharp decline in ad revenue as brands and businesses assessed changes to the platform and some called out its outspoken new owner.
Last week, Musk hired former NBCUniversal advertising executive Linda Yaccarino to replace him as Twitter’s CEO, a move widely seen as a way to jump-start Twitter’s advertising business. She started last Sunday.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
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