Elon Musk’s Feud With President Trump Wipes $152 Billion Off Tesla’s Market Cap

It took only a fewer hours to swipe $152 cardinal of worth from Tesla’s marketplace headdress and much than $100 cardinal successful worth from TrumpCoin.

The end of nan bromance betwixt Elon Musk and President Donald Trump has been brewing for weeks, but connected Thursday nan breakup went nuclear. Musk took to nan level he owns, X, to lambast Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which includes provisions that restrict immigration, limit greenish power subsidies, and is estimated to summation nan US shortage by $2.4 trillion. Trump changeable backmost connected Truth Social, nan level he owns, to opportunity that Musk is against nan measure only because it would return distant electrical conveyance taxation credits that Musk’s company, Tesla, benefits from. It quickly devolved into dozens of posts, astir of them from Musk, who claimed Trump is successful nan Epstein Files—which is, he claims, why they haven’t been made public.

Tesla’s banal is down astir 14 percent astatine nan clip of writing, which is nan biggest single-day deed to its marketplace cap successful years. Trump’s crypto coin is down astir 10 percent.

This is simply a high-stakes divorcement for everyone involved. Trump claimed he would terminate Musk’s governmental subsidies and contracts, which thief rake successful billions of dollars for companies for illustration Tesla and SpaceX. In return, Musk posted that he would decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is utilized by NASA to carrier cargo and astronauts to nan International Space Station, “immediately.” Steve Bannon, a Trump state and vocal professional of Musk, told The New York Times that he “is advising nan president to cancel each of Musk’s contracts and motorboat respective investigations.”

“They should initiate a general investigation of his migration position because I americium of nan beardown belief that he is an forbidden alien, and he should beryllium deported from nan state immediately,” Bannon said. It has been reported that Musk whitethorn person lied connected his visa forms, which would apt person made it forbidden for him to activity successful nan United States successful nan 1990s.

Tesla’s banal driblet comes astatine a delicate clip for nan electric-vehicle maker. This month, nan institution is owed to debut its long-awaited (and much-delayed) robotaxi service successful Austin, Texas. Musk has said that investors should deliberation of Tesla arsenic a robotics and autonomous conveyance exertion institution alternatively than an electrical automaker—putting its self-driving tech and humanoid robot ambitions, alternatively than caller car models, astatine nan halfway of its now $916 cardinal marketplace capitalization. Bloomberg reported that nan institution has internally targeted adjacent week for a launch. Musk has many times claimed that his AI company, xAI, would besides soon merchandise a caller model, though nan motorboat has been delayed.

Tesla’s latest quarterly results, posted successful April, were its worst successful years arsenic production, deliveries, and income fell, particularly successful Europe. The institution has scaled down its ambitions to nutrient a much affordable electrical vehicle, nixing plans to usage caller and precocious manufacturing techniques. Musk attempted to placate worried investors by announcing that he would time off his alleged Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) station and return to his companies, including Tesla, mostly full-time.

Musk denied Thursday that his about-face connected Trump has thing to do pinch electrical conveyance subsidies. Musk has maintained since he joined Trump’s run that Tesla does not request federal taxation credits, which tin scope $7,500 per car, to waste its vehicles. But successful an X post, Musk betrayed nan first inklings of annoyance pinch Trump’s EV policy. “Keep nan EV/solar inducement cuts successful nan bill, moreover though nary lipid & state subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch nan MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK successful nan bill,” he wrote.

Since February, thousands of protesters opposing Musk’s and Trump’s politics—everything from their ambiance stances to nan actions of DOGE—have gathered extracurricular of Tesla showrooms and work centers crossed nan world. What began arsenic a grassroots activity now has a cardinal statement and a name: the Tesla Takedown. On Thursday afternoon, organizers put retired a three-word statement: “Sell, Sell, Sell.”