Tesla and the Trump Tank
By Because everything in the Trump era has to be on the nose, Kevin “Dow 36,000” Hassett is the National Economic Council Director. And hey, Dow 36,000 may happen under this administration after all!
Let’s check in on the largest source of the acting president’s wealth:
I am not a financial professional, but losing 15% of your market cap in one day seems bad, to me. Anyway, I’m sure the CEO is laser focused on turning his increasingly toxic brand around:
The co-president says speaking against Putin’s interests is akin to treason. So I guess that’s where we are now.
[image or embed]— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Again, Trump and Elon aren’t about “ending the war”; they’re just outright pro-Putin, and consider his interests identical to the national interests of the United States. Keep up those Tesla boycotts!
…turns out that alienating the vast majority of your potential customer base is bad for business:
Shares of Tesla slid again Monday as confidence in Elon Musk’s electric car company continues to disintegrate following a post-election “Trump bump.”
Tesla shares tumbled 15.4%, to $222.15. That’s the lowest Tesla shares have traded since late October, reflecting investors’ newfound pessimism as the automaker’s sales crater around the globe. Monday’s decline, Tesla’s steepest since September 2020, came with Wall Street in the midst of a sell-off caused by uncertainty over the Trump administration’s trade policies.
Many analysts have attributed Tesla’s sagging stock — and auto sales — to Musk’s support of President Donald Trump and other far right candidates around the world.
Musk pumped $270 million into Trump’s campaign heading into the 2024 election, appeared on stage with him and cheered Trump’s victory over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November. Tesla stock soared to $479 per share by mid-December, but have since tumbled back to earth, losing 40% of their value.
Musk has become the face of the Trump administration’s slash-and-burn government downsizing efforts, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The department has promised massive federal worker layoffs and aims to drastically reduce government spending.
Analysts have said Musk’s shift to right-wing politics doesn’t appear to sit well with potential Tesla buyers, generally perceived to be wealthy, environmentally-conscious liberals who have turned to electric vehicles in an attempt to reduce fossil fuel emissions.