- The tit-for-tat between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump sent shares of the EV maker into free-fall Thursday in an epic stock plunge that wiped out tens of billions from Musk’s wealth.
Tesla shareholders went on a roller-coaster ride on Thursday as the leader of the free world and the richest man on the planet traded jabs online, wiping out $152 billion in market capitalization for the EV maker.
It was the biggest-ever hit to the car company, whose stock price has become a referendum on the public perception of its CEO, Elon Musk, who was the de facto leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) before abruptly leaving last week over his opposition to President Donald Trump’s spending bill.
Then on Thursday, Musk made it personal.
Tesla shares started plummeting shortly after noon, when Musk started his tirade, calling on lawmakers to “ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill,” claiming, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” and accusing Trump of being “in the Epstein files.”
Trump fired back with claims Musk was upset with the president after the latter moved to cut EV incentives, and threatened to eliminate Musk’s government contracts for SpaceX. Musk, in turn, suggested dismantling the Dragon spacecraft, which carries astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
It’s “not what you want to see as a shareholder,” Tesla mega-bull Dan Ives said of the meltdown.
The spat cooled off by Thursday evening, when Musk replied to an X user that a cooling-off period was likely “a good idea.” On Friday, Tesla stock rebounded, rising to the $300 mark. As of Friday morning, the two men have not posted on social media about each other. But the relationship may be on the wane. A White House spokesman told Bloomberg that no phone call would take place between the two—and that the president was considering getting rid of the Tesla he bought on the White House lawn in March.