Elon Musk has ‘demon-like’ outbursts: Walter Isaacson

Elon Musk is prone to “demon-like” outbursts that he can “hardly remember” in the aftermath, according to his biographer.

Walter Isaacson, who followed the Tesla tycoon around for three years for the bombshell biography set to be released Tuesday, described the billionaire as having “multiple personalities.”

In a Monday interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” host Joe Scarborough asked Isaacson about the different sides of the eccentric 52-year-old, saying his new book paints “two, three, four types of Elon.”

“You know, that’s a great question because he has so many personalities, almost like multiple personalities, and a bit like his father, whom he doesn’t speak to now — but his father is a Jekyll and Hyde and sometimes goes very dark,” the biographer replied.

“And it happened to Elon too. He’ll go from being very giddy or being in engineering mode, where he can figure out the valve of a raptor engine, and suddenly the clouds come,” he continued.

“And the amazing thing is, after he’s gone dark and been demon-like and really tough on people, he’ll snap out of it. And then I’ll ask him, ‘What was that about?’ and he hardly remembers it.”

Isaacson explained how he saw Musk change as he followed him around over the past three years.

“When I started this book, when we first talked about it, this was the guy who was bringing us into the era of electric vehicles and the only person who could send American astronauts into orbit from the US. I thought, ‘Hey, good technology story,’” he told Scarborough.

“And then on the way, about a year into my reporting, he’s secretly buying up Twitter and then going to Hawaii in a two or three night binge and deciding to take it over,” the journalist said of Musk’s shock announcement last year that he was buying the social media giant.

“So it became a hell of a lot more of a rollercoaster ride then.”

Isaacson added: “And the dark strands in him, as well as the competent strands, are tightly woven together.”

In one excerpt from his book, billionaire Bill Gates told how Musk was “super mean” to him after the Microsoft co-founder purchased a short position on Tesla stock.

“Once he heard I’d shorted the stock, he was super mean to me, but he’s super mean to so many people, so you can’t take it too personally,” Gates told the author.

Musk confirmed in April 2022 that he had refused a philanthropy request from Gates over the stock shorting incident, detailing parts of their text exchange.

In the texts, the two billionaires appeared set to meet somewhere before Musk asked Gates if he still had a “half billion dollar short position against Tesla.”

“Sorry to say I haven’t closed it yet,” Gates added in another text. “I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities.” 

Musk replied that he could not take Gates’ philanthropy on climate change “seriously” when “you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change.”

Gates told Isaacson that he had apologized to Musk over the incident, but that the relationship had not improved.

Musk then posted a meme appearing to mock Gates for his weight in the days following the text exchange revelation, but he soon announced that he was “moving on” from the topic.

The biography, titled “Elon Musk,” will hit the bookshelves on Sept. 12.