Political Weirdos

The difference between now and the late 00s/early 10s, is that he actually listened to his RP people. Before he took over SpaceX and Tesla there wasn't much reason for people to pay attention to him so the narrative that he was using his wealth to improve humanity was taken at face value and pushed in the media.

The more spotlight he got and the more he interacted with other public figures, the more it was apparent that he wasn't liberal minded as he had been made out to be and the more of his history in South Africa and early days of what we'd call the modern internet started to reveal him to what he always was, a nepo baby using his money to plaster his name over other people's accomplishments. He never was a modern day Nikolai Tesla, he's a modern day Thomas Edison, pushing his own bad ideas and ensuring no one who works for him gets proper credit or compensation for the work making him money.