Elon Musk often wields his Twitter account as a weapon – threatening to back out of his deal to buy Twitter or insulting US President Joe Biden as a damp sock puppet “in human form”.
More recently, the world’s richest person veered into more treacherous geopolitical territory by offering head-scratching proposals to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and settle questions about Taiwan’s sovereignty. His tweets and other public comments have angered presidents and foreign ministers across Europe and, awkwardly, won praise from America’s rivals.