Elon Musk vs. Donald Trump: Threat with SpaceX, Tesla shares plummet

A few days after Elon Musk left the White House, the US billionaire and Donald Trump got into an argument in public and on the internet, which caused Tesla's share price to plummet, among other things. The electric car company's share price ultimately plummeted by more than 14 percent, and was even down by more than 17 percent at one point. Meanwhile, Musk even threatened that his space company SpaceX would no longer fly people into space for NASA, but he later retracted this. The dispute was allegedly caused by far-reaching legislative plans by Trump and his Republican Party, which Musk has been sharply criticizing for days.

Mutual accusations

Immediately after leaving the White House last Friday, Musk began criticizing the major tax and budget bill pushed forward by Trump. The billionaire, who was supposed to cut government spending in Washington, called for greater savings and criticized the fact that the bill would significantly increase the US debt burden. Trump, in turn, suggested that Musk was only campaigning against the legislative plans because they would cut subsidies for electric cars. Before he found out about this, he said, he had no problems with it. Musk has now called this a lie.

The dispute escalated on Thursday after Trump spoke out for the first time during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Musk subsequently attacked the US President with a flood of posts on his short messaging service X and eventually turned to members of his party. They should follow his lead because after all, Trump only has “three and a half years left as president – I'll be around for more than 40 years”. The 53-year-old thus estimates his life expectancy at over 90 years and threatens the US ruling party. After all, he could easily finance rivals who challenge unpopular US MPs in the next elections.

The dispute has now apparently ended an alliance that Musk and Trump formed during the presidential election campaign and which is likely to have played a decisive role in the outcome of the election. The billionaire then personally campaigned for Trump and now claims that “without me, Trump would have lost the election”. In the US capital, Musk then enforced harsh austerity measures and wound up government institutions as a “special government employee” with the help of the newly founded DOGE (“Department of Government Efficiency”). Democrats have accused him of obstructing investigations into his companies and possible fines in the billions.

Tesla shares plummet

The dispute has now had direct consequences for Tesla, with the stock market value of Musk's electric car company plummeting by around 150 billion US dollars. Its share price had risen sharply after Trump's election victory, with many apparently speculating that Tesla would benefit from Musk's closeness to the US president. The rise occurred despite slumping sales figures because large parts of the customer base were put off by the proximity. According to Bloomberg, the value of Musk's Tesla shares fell by 34 billion US dollars on Thursday; only once has a person lost more in one day – that was also Elon Musk, in November 2021.

(mho)