Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s long-distance spat with the president cost the EV maker a spot in the $1 trillion club on Thursday.
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) fell more than 14% on Thursday as Musk and President Donald Trump exchanged jabs across social media platforms. Thursday’s decline cut more than $150 billion from Tesla’s market capitalization, dropping its market value to about $913 billion.
Musk has been criticizing President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act for days. He called it a “disgusting abomination” on Tuesday, and on Wednesday urged his followers on X, the social media platform he owns, to tell their senators to kill the bill. Musk officially left his role in the Trump administration’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency last week.
Trump responded on Thursday, telling reporters from the White House that he was “very disappointed” by Musk’s criticism. Trump went on to insist he would have won November’s election without the hundreds of millions of dollars Musk to support him and other Republicans. Trump later took to Truth Social to call Musk “CRAZY” and threaten to cancel Musk’s government contracts.
Tesla’s stock has been on a rollercoaster ride this year. Shares shed as much as 40% of their value in the first quarter as sales slumped, tariffs hit the stock market, and controversy swirled around Musk. They staged a comeback in April and May after Musk said he would step back from Washington.
Thursday’s decline erased much of that rally and put shares down about 30% since the start of the year.
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