Elon Musk’s Twitter is a Shakespearean psychodrama set in Silicon Valley

He’s ruling his newest acquisition the way he rules the rest of his empire: impulsively, erratically, vindictively, loudly. It really doesn’t need to be this way.

Elon Musk should be basking in the adulation of a society grateful for his contributions to low-emission transportation and space exploration. Yet he can’t resist the attention that comes from shock-tweeting. File picture: Britta Pedersen/AFP

It was Day 5 of Elon Musk’s riveting, rambunctious takeover of Twitter Inc. The owner and self-proclaimed Chief Twit had spent much of the last weekend in October at his new company’s San Francisco headquarters among people desperate to please him: employees angling to keep their jobs amid steep layoffs and personal advisers helping him with the turnaround. 

He arrived in New York at 2am that Monday with plans to visit Twitter’s offices in Chelsea and spend the day courting advertisers, the group most important to the company’s survival.