I don't get where this line of thought comes from. Why must it be someone else who is encouraging him? He's a middle aged man who is the wealthiest person in the world by some metrics. He should own his words and actions and can't blame others.

When people show you who they are, believe them. Which means he probably is the kind of person who would, as you say: "laugh at an attack on an 80 year person with a hammer in their home."

Making electric cars and space rockets doesn't make him any less likely to be exactly that kind of person.