Fifteen years ago he was in the position that he needed people to be enthusiastic about his electric cars so he paid lip service to liberal ideas because conservatives hate electric cars. I guess at a certain point he decided his market share was unstoppable and he could take the mask off and join the fascists and keep his sales at the same level.

Or he's one of those lame middle aged white men who is irrationally angry that he isn't the center of the universe and starts embracing right wing ideas because they justify all his gripes about the state of the world. Once you join that crowd they also blow smoke up your ass all day and Musk is the lame type who craves constant attention and validation and they gave it to him so he went all in.