- Car company’s shares fall by 14.2%
- Billionaire CEO’s net worth drops by $8.73bn
- Musk okays Trump’s impeachment as feud soars
Tesla’s shares dropped by about 14.2 percent on Thursday at market close, wiping roughly $152 billion off the value of the company as a feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump erupted fully into public view.
The former political allies traded threats and insults through posts on their respective social media platforms throughout the afternoon as the company’s price fell.
Trump suggested on Truth Social that he could cut Musk’s government subsidies and contracts, of which both Tesla and SpaceX have been immense beneficiaries.
But in a swift response, Musk threatened to decommission the SpaceX spacecraft that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) relies on for transport missions, even as he called for Trump’s impeachment.
The business mogul also derided the President Trump’s signature tariffs and accused him of being affiliated with the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Meanwhile, as the exchanges escalated, Musk said late Thursday evening that his company will not decommission its spacecraft.
However, the decline in Tesla’s share price on Thursday knocked about $8.73 billion off Musk’s total net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The reported $152 billion drop also decreased the value of the company to roughly $900 billion.
Tesla has struggled throughout the year amid declining sales and buyers around the world rejecting the automaker due to Musk’s association with far-right politics.
This is as Stock traders who had shorted Tesla shares made billions amid the spat, per the Wall Street Journal.
The blow-up is an unexpected and dramatic escalation of a growing rift between two of the world’s most powerful men.
Musk had donated about $275 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and served as the leader of the cost-cutting “Department of government efficiency” (Doge) for months at the president’s beck and call.
It also puts increased investor scrutiny on how the clash could affect Musk’s business empire, with his companies such as Tesla facing potential retribution in the form of canceled government deals or increased regulatory oversight.
The rift began after Musk recently opposed the administration’s new tax bill that eliminates electric vehicle tax credits and would add an expected $2.3 trillion to the deficit, in effect nullifying the limited “savings” Doge claimed to find.
Musk was also reportedly upset about being increasingly iced out of the Trump administration and having the nomination of his preferred candidate to lead NASA pulled. – With The Guardian report
