I have (on balance) been a Musk fan, though not in an uncritical way.

[edit to add: I have never been a Tesla shareholder, and I realize that many Musk and Tesla fans bring elements of irrationality and nastiness, but hopefully that is not where I am coming from.]

The main thing, for me, is that if Musk were not around, then outside of China we would have still been sitting around in 2018 (or 2022 for that matter) listening to Chevy, Nissan, Ford, Mercedes, Toyota and the like automaker-splaining to us, condescendingly, with circular reasoning, that if enough people really wanted good long range luxurious BEVs, then they would be in existence, so the fact that they refused to make them (in defiance of what some of their customers wanted) means the vehicles must not be strongly enough in demand, nor buildable at the costs needed. Most of that nonsense has faded away, after years of difficult struggle, because (along with some Chinese automakers) Tesla, with Musk at the helm, called their bluff, recognized that really the automakers were just hiding behind the massive barriers to entry that exist in their field, recognized that the technology was ready, and went forward. It was an incredible achievement and should never be minimized. It will be discussed in business and history classes for centuries, in my opinion.

I buy Musk's point that if he had not moved the next gigafactory plans to Texas, ... if they had stayed with California, ... then they would still be in the permitting stage. This appears to be largely an issue with Democrat take-business-for-granted mindset in California. I also found it shocking that the Biden administration has gone so far out of its way to slap Musk in the face (going on about how the CEO of GM lead the way, when, obviously, someone else had done most of the heavy lifting). Yes, there's an issue with Tesla not using Union Labor. No, that does not fully justify where the Democrats have gone on this. Anyway, I can see how Musk would want to explore voting for a few Republicans.

However, the world's wealthiest man (or one of them) has stupidly just declared that he is willing to cast a vote for one of the Republicans when it would signal, in effect, a vote for the end of the rule of law in the United States of America. DeSantis has not repudiated the Stop The Steal bs. This means that DeSantis should be associated (by all thinking people) with the ongoing attempt to take over the US government, end the rule of law as we know it, and move to dark ages. If Musk wanted to shout out a pro-Republican voting idea for 2024 Presidential Race, he could have done a lot of good by shouting out something like Cheney-Czinger.... two Republicans who have heroically stood against the "end justifies the means" attempted coup that has involved so many of their fellow Republicans.

Thoughtful critics of Musk should not let this matter rest until they have made crystal clear to him that as long as he voices that he might be ok with voting for any Republican who supports (tacitly or openly, neither is acceptable) the coup, then he, as our fellow American voter, is standing for the end of the rule of law in the US.