Elon Musk documentary maker gets frank about tech trillionaire

Elon Musk documentary maker Alex Gibney has revealed what he really thinks about the about tech trillionaire.

Alex Gibney believes the former left-wing favourite backed Donald Trump to avoid prison.

The director, whose four-hour documentary about Elon, titled simply Musk, was released last month, told Variety Magazine he felt Elon had pivoted away from his previously progressive ideals and started supporting the MAGA movement because he was facing a raft of criminal charges and believed Donald Trump would help him avoid incarceration.

"I honestly think that the primary reason he went for Trump was because he was facing something like 32 investigations by 11 different federal agencies, including a criminal investigation into fraud at Tesla - which would have landed him in prison if he had been convicted," Alex, 73, told the outlet at a public talk in New York City on Monday.

"I think he saw an opportunity to elect Trump and, knowing that he would be history's most transactional president, knew that he could get rid of all those investigations."

He added he could see several similarities between the two entrepreneurs, including their tendency "to create their own reality", and their talent at self-branding.

"Trump was never a builder; he was a brander that put his name on buildings," Alex said. "Musk was never really an inventor; he was an investor, but he created the illusion that he was this science-fiction inventor."