I tried, watching the video a few times. I can't believe that he didn't know what he was doing.
At best, he wants to demonstrate that he can make one of the worst gestures anyone can do in this position and suffer no consequences. Some kind of demonstration of power.
Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/elon-r-musk/
And he isn't leverage. In the end, he sold Tesla share and bought Twitter with cash, contrary to what most newspaper wrote (and never corrected).