Marco della Cava

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk doesn't really do interviews. But he does do Twitter.

That perhaps explains the tea leaf-reading approach many take to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO's often bold tweets, which on Wednesday included a curious (and rare) deletion of messages that condemned President Trump's controversial immigration ban against visitors from seven majority-Muslim nations.

In a pair of tweets, Musk called the ban, which has been lifted by court ruling, "not right." He also wrote that disagreements about policy matters are reflective of a "functioning democracy." Then the tweets disappeared.

After Scotland-based photographer Sam Cornwell tweeted about the vanishing, Musk himself replied, explaining that they "were earlier drafts that I accidentally published. I said the same thing a week already."

On Cutler's thread, reaction ranged from skepticism ("Yeah . . .Elon Musk? Accident? Doubt it," tweeted @willpercy5) to fan-boy surprise (unprintable from @davenorcott).

Indeed if there is any mystery here at all, it would be why Musk bothered hitting delete.

The tech entrepreneur, who sits on two business councils that advise Trump, defended his position on the panels by arguing that they afforded him the opportunity to express his displeasure with the ban and other issues directly with the president.

"At my request, the agenda for yesterday's White House meeting went from not mentioning the travel ban to having it be first and foremost," he tweeted on Feb. 5.

Musk's automotive and rocket companies also voiced their dissent by joining more than 100 tech companies in signing an amicus brief just before a federal appeals court here heard arguments for and against the travel ban.

The companies argued that the executive order would inherently hurt U.S. business interests. On Feb. 9, three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban.

Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter: @marcodellacava