Was he lying back then and is truthful now, or did the pandemic just break him?
Yeah it looks like anyone close to him (including his business partners) says he was an asshole.
It looks like he had a great PR firm until then, which he stopped using, because he thought he can do better on his own.
Started to believe the bullshit himself basically… a spectacular fall from public grace.
More like he realized there were a lot more fascists running around than previously suspected and he could get away with it.