A Tesla showroom and service center, in Burbank on Sept. 4, 2020 in Burbank, California. Credit – Kent Nishimura—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Tesla stocks plummeted on Thursday as the simmering feud between the company’s CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump broke open.
Shares fell about 14.3% for the day, erasing more than $150 billion in the company’s market valuation. It was Tesla’s worst day since March, when its stock dropped about 15% in the midst of a wave of consumer backlash against Musk’s role in the Trump Administration.
Thursday’s drop comes as the President and the world’s richest man publicly traded barbs after Musk criticized Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” a sweeping tax and spending proposal that passed the House last month and is now facing growing resistance in the Senate. In addition to tax cuts and reductions in federal spending, the bill phases out incentives for electric vehicles, the source of much of Tesla’s—and Musk’s—wealth and influence.
Musk was until recently one of the President’s closest allies and biggest supporters, donating millions to Trump’s campaign and later leading the controversial Department of Government Efficiency under his Administration. On May 30, Musk left his government role after expressing dissatisfaction with the giant tax and spending package in an interview. A few days later, he began slamming the bill on X, calling it a “disgusting abomination.”
The feud between the two escalated on Thursday, with Trump telling reporters that, while he and Musk used to have a good relationship, “I don’t know if we will anymore” and “I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
Musk fired back on X, saying “Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” later adding, “Such ingratitude.”
Read more: Trump’s Relationship With Musk Collapses in Nasty War of Words
They went on to sling a number of other attacks back and forth: Trump suggested he had fired Musk from his role in the Administration and openly threatened to cancel billions of dollars of government contracts with Musk’s businesses; Musk shared a post calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced with Vice President J.D. Vance and went so far as to say, without providing evidence, that Trump is in the Epstein files, a collection of documents related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Thursday plunge in Tesla stocks marks the latest turn in a turbulent period for the company amid Musk’s foray into—and now out of—Trump’s inner circle. While Tesla’s stock initially rose after Trump was elected in November, it took a tumble earlier this year, as many consumers boycotted the company in protest of Musk’s growing role in the Administration.
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