Jason Delgado
Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis is once again courting Tesla CEO Elon Musk, this time urging the 50-year-old billionaire to relocate Twitter headquarters to Florida.
An outspoken Twitter critic and the richest man on Earth, Musk on Monday joined the board after becoming the company’s top shareholder.
In a letter sent Tuesday, Patronis congratulated Musk, lambasted the company’s policies and suggested the “Free State of Florida” may help free it of progressive ideology.
“I think Twitter’s culture could benefit from being in a state that values liberty and has not been taken captive by the thought police (unlike California),” Patronis wrote. “There is no Ministry of Truth here. Just freedom, beaches and a lot of opportunity.”
A Republican and regular Twitter user, Patronis’ invitation is speckled with grievances about the platform’s “garbage-adjacent censorship policies.” The “woke agenda,” he wrote, is degrading free speech and “demonizing” conservative ideas and companies, like The Babylon Bee.
Twitter suspended the satire website in late March after they named Rachel Levine — a transgender woman serving as a U.S. Assistant Secretary for health — as its “Man of the Year.” The suspension reportedly angered Musk, and compelled him to take action.
“Musk reached out to us before he polled his followers about Twitter’s commitment to free speech,” said Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon. “He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended. He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter.”
Notably, this isn’t Patronis’ first letter to Musk. Over the summer, he welcomed Tesla and SpaceX to headquarter in Floridaas a way to dodge California’s stiff COVID-19 mitigation politics. In the past, he also offered to host the 2021 Olympics and urged the New York Stock Exchange to settle in Florida.
The invitations have courted critics, many of whom characterize the invitations as publicity stunts. Patronis, though, serves on the board of Enterprise Florida, whose responsibilities include attracting businesses into the state.
Musk ultimately relocated Tesla factories to Texas. In the letter, Patronis characterized Texas as the second-best option.
“While Texas is an upgrade over California — a low bar — you should seriously consider moving Twitter further east,” he wrote. “In Florida, you won’t have an unreliable electric grid — problems you’ve already experienced in the Lone Star State.”
Musk now holds a 9% stake in Twitter.
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April 7, 2022 at 5:28 pm
I do not know about the censor part but I sure do not like a person showing their diseases but ugly pmple butt at me keep that to yourself
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