I'm sure he has his motivations that he has internally justified and made sense of.

Saying he has mental health issues because he supports Donald Trump because somehow Trump is pro oil and that'll massively hurt the EV industry sounds like a huge stretch, be honest. Even a casual reading of Elon a lot of us squint and make the conclusion that he supports Trump because he thinks it's what your country needs, heck like a lot of us do, EV industry be damned.

The left is clearly destructive with open borders and a lack of crime policing, even if it's noble, that it's very likely that everyone including Elon is choosing Trump as a correction to the arguably insane and self-destructive policies of the left.

Why on earth do you think America needs Trump? I'm honestly interested in your opinion. Why do you say that?

Even if as the other commenter said, it's about advancing business interests through bribes, it's a slippery, dangerous slope. Trump is the kind of person who might end up deciding his Son in Law should be running your company...based on his track record of appointing morons to high places.

I really still can't imagine what is going through his mind.

Trump is a deplorable person even if you think he is funny or entertaining.

Honestly, I think plain old sanity needs to prevail on some level to counteract the direction the US (and lots of the Western world) have been heading. And currently, sanity is taking the really weird form of Donald Trump and a lot of people are rallying behind him oddly. Do I like him? No, he's a weird dude and triggers a bunch of my own personal alarm bells. But if this is the only thing sanity can muster, then so be it. Obviously debate, processes, laws (!!), and discussions are not working (just look at the Biden thread happening right now on HN). Heck, one could arguably say that democratic processes such as majority-rule are also not working.

What exactly do you want a rational person to do? We have actual laws that are racist, and at the same time we have laws that are selectively enforced and ignored for political purposes. In that sort of environment, we're in the same field as dictatorships and when it comes time to protecting oneself and family, anything goes.

See where the debate is right now: You claim he might appoint his Son in Law as a form of nepotism. The other side counters with "but look at Hunter Biden, etc" and "Look how Biden appointed unqualified DEI hires, etc". It's all marketing spin, and we have no idea what's really happening. We're relying on trust and hearsay with N-levels of interpretation and motives to get to the truth.

US republicans and democrats have largely the same policies except for social wedge issues.

My bet is that Elon knows Trump is pliable if you come with an open checkbook, so there's real opportunity to advance your business interests if he's president.

I think this is true also, it's calculated to some degree, but shit can go really bad with this approach too, it's playing with fire. Ask Jack Ma about dealing with autocrats or those who "strongly admire" autocrats, as Trump has said repeatedly. He admires, Xi, he admires Putin, he admires Kim Jung Un. At some point he might decide some of your wealth, might just be some of his wealth.

It's wild, really wild, I can't believe this is America we're talking about.