Or are they still doing “everything they can to ignore” him?
Barely a week after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted his decision to “vote Republican,” a California Democrat posted about his Senate bid on a platform seemingly built singularly on stopping Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Musk.
Dan O’Dowd, the founder of The Dawn Project and CEO of Green Hills Software, called Tesla’s full self-driving software a Ponzi scheme and suggested that Musk “became the wealthiest man in history by swindling customers and investors.”
The video, as expected, has yet to gain traction on the platform that Musk is poised to purchase for US$44 million. Some Tesla fans, as expected, were also quick to defend Musk.
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O’Dowd calls himself “the world’s leading expert in creating software that never fails and can’t be hacked,” which on his website says includes the secure operating systems for Boeing’s 787s, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Fighter Jets, the Boeing B1-B Intercontinental Nuclear Bomber, and NASA’s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle.
He built The Dawn Project as a way to campaign for the banning of unsafe software from safety-critical systems. His campaign has called Tesla’s software “the worst software ever sold by a Fortune 500 company,” warning people to not become the EV maker’s “crash test dummies.” The software CEO and senatorial candidate has spent a good chunk of funds for his campaign, even putting out a full-page ad in The New York Times earlier this year.
Meanwhile, earlier in April, Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren went on MSNBC to talk about how the government needs to make two big changes: “we need a wealth tax on the ultra-rich and we need rules of the road for Big Tech. There’s too much at stake.”
Democrats have been mulling over the ways to tax the ultra-rich for a while, and Senator Warren, as well as Senator Bernie Sanders, have proposed their own version of a wealth tax. There are a few differences in their versions but both aim to tax the assets of the ultra-rich, instead of just taxing income gained from their wealth.
Musk, in his bid to take over Twitter, and also simply because he is the wealthiest man on Earth, was an easy target to resurface the conversation and push for the wealth tax.
Musk’s “I will vote Republican” tweet received a sobering response from Jon Favreau, who was former President Barack Obama’s director of speechwriting and currently the co-host for Pod Save America. Favreau reminded the billionaire of what kind of party he’s taking the sharp turn for, pointing out that he’s proclaiming support for “electric vehicle-hating climate deniers,” and how he’s not sure how that will help the Tesla CEO’s clean energy cause.
At the end of the day, Musk has said it himself: he’s frustrated at the Biden administration for “ignoring” Tesla. And so, like most things about the wealthiest man on Earth these days, this one’s still all about his fragile ego and not much else.
Information for this briefing was found via MSNBC, Twitter and the sources mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
