{"id":82802,"date":"2025-06-05T18:45:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T22:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=82802"},"modified":"2025-06-05T18:45:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T22:45:20","slug":"tsla-drops-14-as-investors-see-corruption-being-priced-out-of-tesla-stock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=82802","title":{"rendered":"TSLA drops 14% as investors see corruption being priced out of Tesla stock"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"\"<\/figure>\n

Tesla stock dropped over 50 points today, primarily in response to a very public feud between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and convicted felon Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

But, as we pointed out in November<\/a>, this doesn\u2019t have anything to do with company performance, and rather only reflects a change in the market\u2019s expectation of potential benefit to Tesla from government corruption.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tesla stock has had a wild few months, with big rises and falls that has had little to do with company performance (which is, perhaps, nothing new for the stock, which has always been a speculative vehicle).<\/p>\n

Much of the movement of TSLA has been centered around CEO Elon Musk\u2019s relationship with Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\tAdvertisement – scroll for more content<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk very publicly supported Mr. Trump\u2019s run for president, giving hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes<\/a> to Mr. Trump\u2019s campaign, despite the latter\u2019s openly anti-EV positions (and despite that there exists a\u00a0clear legal remedy\u00a0<\/a>stopping insurrectionists from holding office in the US).<\/p>\n

Musk even went on to spew climate denying nonsense<\/a> alongside Mr. Trump during the campaign, and later said nothing when Mr. Trump declared his intent to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement<\/a>, even though he previously opposed a similar move in 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This led to Musk being invited into an advisory role, which was dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency despite it not being a real government department, and having a supposed mission redundant with the already-existing Government Accountability Office.<\/p>\n

And in the immediate aftermath of the election, TSLA stock rose swiftly, purely because of expectations of corruption<\/a>. But after that swift rise, it gradually fell as the reality of economy-destroying tariffs<\/a>, anti-EV legislation<\/a>, and Tesla\u2019s brand perception problem due to Musk\u2019s actions<\/a> all became apparent. Despite Musk\u2019s position as a top republican party donor, the party still seems more interested in catering to its traditional base in the fossil fuel industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite some recovery from that big post election rise-and-drop, TSLA took another big hit today, and it\u2019s all due to the current rift forming between these two egomaniacs.<\/p>\n

A rift over spending becomes something greater<\/h2>\n

During his tenure in his advisory position, Musk claims to have saved the government hundreds of billions of dollars, but independent accounting has shown that it is in fact likely to increase<\/em> the deficit, not decrease it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it seems like Musk was fooled into believing his own propaganda, and into thinking that deficit reduction was ever a goal of Mr. Trump, despite that he previously oversaw the highest nominal deficit of any person in the history of the United States.<\/p>\n

At least, he believed that until now. In the last few days, after leaving his advisory position, Musk has loudly opposed the new republican budget bill, which he now correctly points out will add trillions of dollars to the US deficit<\/a> (as any lucid<\/a> person might have predicted from the party of waste).<\/p>\n

The criticism came to a head today, with Musk going through one of his patented tweetstorms, acting more like a jilted lover<\/a> than a CEO in charge of a company that has many people\u2019s retirement invested into it.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot of back and forth, but over the course of the day, Musk has posted many statements about how dangerous the budget bill will be for the US debt and deficit.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump responded, stating that Musk should have known these things before now, but that Musk is only acting this way because he cut the \u201cEV mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be clear, the bill in question does not cut any EV mandate, as there was never an EV mandate to begin with<\/a>, but it does cut EV tax credits<\/a> which Tesla has gained more benefit from than any other company, though Tesla lobbied in support of these cuts<\/a>. The bill does not cut support for oil and gas companies, which are orders of magnitude higher than the support EV companies get.<\/p>\n

In response to this, Musk claimed that he personally swung the election in favor of the republicans, and that Mr. Trump is showing \u201cingratitude\u201d by not recognizing this fact.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump responded by suggesting that the government could save money by terminating all of the subsidies<\/a> and contracts for services with Musk\u2019s various companies. To this, Musk said that he would immediately decommission the Dragon capsule, which has been the main spacecraft used by NASA to service the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

Then, Musk went on to state that a recession will happen in the second half of this year due to Mr. Trump\u2019s position on tariffs, and also to accuse Mr. Trump of being on Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s list (which is not the first time Musk has publicly accused someone of pedophilia<\/a>, though it is the first time he\u2019s said that about someone who he claimed to \u201clove as much as any straight man can,\u201d and knowingly worked alongside), and to agree with a call for his impeachment.<\/p>\n

The market sees this as a negative sign<\/h2>\n

The public rift seems to have shaken the stock market out of its stupor, as Tesla went down more than 50 points since the start of today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

While nothing significant has changed for Tesla\u2019s business today \u2013 it\u2019s still suffering from falling sales in an otherwise rising market, and it still has a bad CEO<\/a> \u2013 what has<\/em> changed is the possibility of the company benefitting from corruption.<\/p>\n

As I stated during TSLA\u2019s meteoric post-election rise<\/a>, the stock price was merely a reflection of the market\u2019s expectation that Mr. Trump, a person with an enormous history of corruption<\/a>, would thank Musk for his election participation by rewarding him and his companies. Nobody quite knew how<\/em> that might happen, but everyone expected that it would.<\/p>\n

I claimed, at the time, that this was unlikely to turn out the way the market thought it would, because the republicans would likely continue to favor fossil fuels, and that regulatory blockages were not the thing holding Tesla back from its automation goals.<\/p>\n

Musk did attempt to use the government in corrupt ways, as detailed this week in a report by Senator Warren<\/a>, and as we all remember from the White House Auto Mall infomercial<\/a> (remember, folks, \u201ceverything\u2019s computer!<\/em>\u201c).<\/p>\n

But none of that was ever going to justify the addition of hundreds of billions of dollars to Tesla\u2019s market cap.<\/p>\n

The market seems to be realizing that more today, as over $100 billion has been shaved off of Tesla\u2019s market cap since the start of the feud. That\u2019s quite a lot of priced-in expected benefit that has been wiped away, all by a single tweetstorm.<\/p>\n

Fight shows how vulnerable Tesla is to Musk\u2019s whims<\/h2>\n

While it\u2019s all well and good to see the worst two people you know fighting each other, and to finally see the inevitable fallout between two narcissists who frankly held out much longer than any reasonable person thought they would, this fight does show the significant vulnerability that Tesla has to the whims of a CEO who has shown poor ability to control his impulses in the past.<\/p>\n

The last year or more has been highlighted by several poor business decisions by Musk, not the least of which is his support of one of the larger anti-EV entities on the planet right now.<\/p>\n

But beyond the politics, his leadership has still been erratic for the company. Not only has he paid more attention to the many other companies he runs<\/a>, when he has<\/em> turned his attention to Tesla, it hasn\u2019t been positive for the company.<\/p>\n

After mostly ignoring Tesla for a few years, he went through a flurry of activity in the run-up to last year\u2019s shareholder advisory vote on his compensation package<\/a>. This flurry involved firing everyone<\/a>\u00a0including important leadership<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0successful teams<\/a>,\u00a0canceling an all-important affordable car project (and lying about it)<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0holding Tesla\u2019s AI projects hostage<\/a>\u00a0while shifting both resources<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0staff<\/a>\u00a0from Tesla to his private AI company, even as he claims that AI is the future of Tesla.<\/p>\n

Now, TSLA investors have another thing to worry about \u2013 whether Musk will continue to try to \u201cpoke the bear\u201d and get more government opposition to his company, even as he continues to make himself distasteful globally (by, for example, showing support<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0German neo-Nazis<\/a>,\u00a0agreeing with a defense of Hitler\u2019s actions in the Holocaust<\/a>, or his many other\u00a0white supremacist statements<\/a>). These actions have driven protests against the company<\/a>,\u00a0embarrassed owners<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0pushed many customers away<\/a> \u2013 and those protesters aren\u2019t planning on stopping<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While some may cheer this new rift that has formed between Musk and one of the environment\u2019s greatest enemies, Donald Trump, it seems unlikely that Musk\u2019s erratic behavior will be beneficial for Tesla the company in the long run.<\/p>\n

Update: <\/em>According to a YouGov snap poll from today<\/a>, it doesn\u2019t look like this is going in a positive direction for Musk \u2013 or, really, anyone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n
\n

Charge your electric vehicle at home using rooftop solar panels. Find a reliable and competitively priced solar installer near you on <\/em>EnergySage<\/em><\/a>, for free. They have pre-vetted installers competing for your business, ensuring high-quality solutions and 20-30% savings. It\u2019s free, with no sales calls until you choose an installer. Compare personalized solar quotes online and receive guidance from unbiased Energy Advisers. Get started <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. \u2013 ad*<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.<\/em> More.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tesla stock dropped over 50 points today, primarily in response to a very public feud between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and convicted felon Donald Trump. But, as we pointed out in November, this doesn\u2019t have anything to do with company performance, and rather only reflects a change in the market\u2019s expectation of potential benefit to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}