Though Elon Musk has been a critical figure in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, his role has come at a big price.
Billionaire Elon Musk has been quick to assert that the criticism of his public image and that of his electric vehicle company, Tesla, since endorsing Donald Trump for president and playing a prominent role in his administration, is unfair and unwarranted.
Globally, demand for Tesla vehicles is declining as a result of Musk’s alignment with far-right movements and greater competition within the EV market.
As Musk aligned himself closer to Trump, he was rewarded after having effectively endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Compared to the price a year ago, Tesla’s stock price is up 58.1%.
Musk publicly endorsed Donald Trump on 13 July, 2025, and as the two billionaires joined forces, Tesla was rewarded in trading markets. Between publicly endorsing the GOP candidate, shortly after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and inauguration day, Tesla’s stock price shot up 71 percent, or by around $178. That growth ballooned Musk’s net worth, leading him to be named by Forbes as the richest person in the world.
However, as the Trump administration got to work, with Musk as a key figure among the president’s advisors, Tesla’s image began to suffer. Though much of the public had an awareness of Elon Musk, his role in cutting funding to USAID and other federal agencies, the Sieg Heil on Inauguration Day, and the supporting of a president who withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords precipitated his demise in the eyes of potential customers.
The loss in value seen by Tesla occurred before the announcement of widespread tariffs from the White House, which included a 145 percent levy on Chinese imports. Musk said he tried to convince President Trump that tariffs weren’t the right move, but he was outnumbered. Tesla has stopped taking two orders in China for models made in the US, as the retaliatory tariffs imposed by Beijing make them uncompetitive in the market. Since the end of March, Tesla’s stock price has stood around $280, although it did see a dip in the days following the announcement on tariffs.
In the announcement of the company’s first-quarter earnings, Musk assured investors and stakeholders that he would be dedicating himself more fully to the company in May. Furthermore, the reports indicate that it wasn’t vehicle production and deliveries that kept the company profitable, but rather revenue from carbon credits purchased by other companies. As Jameson Dow at Eletrek noted, the fact that Musk opened his call with investors attacking “government handouts not only shows his hypocrisy and projection on this matter, but his detachment from reality itself.”
Now, as Musk prepares to scale back his work in the Trump administration, he returns to a company whose image has been deeply damaged by his actions.
Over the weekend, Musk shared a video on X of him speaking at an event where he claimed he far preferred building stuff over politics. “I hate politics,” said Musk to an unnamed crowd, arguing that he had “no choice” because “the stakes are so high.”
"I'm a technologist. I build rockets and cars. I derive joy from seeing people enjoy the products that my companies make."
Elon Musk
pic.twitter.com/NbCVSaQbPe
It will be this argument that the billionaire will need to convince investors that Tesla is still a viable company moving forward. What shows is that Musk’s worldview either did not consider that his work for the administration could create such dramatic consequences for Tesla, or he did know and he took the risk anyway. Bloomberg reported that the first 100 days of the Trump administration cost Musk a quarter of his fortune. Nevertheless, those losses came after major gains made by Tesla’s stock price in 2024.
As Musk aligned himself closer to Trump, he was rewarded after having effectively endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Compared to the price a year ago, two months before he formally endorsed the now-president on 13 July, Tesla’s stock price is up 58.1%.
Between publicly endorsing the GOP candidate, shortly after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and inauguration day, Tesla’s stock price shot up 71 percent, or by around $178.
However, as the Trump administration got to work, with Musk featuring as a key figure among the president’s advisors, Tesla’s image began to suffer. Cuts to USAID, supporting a president who withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords, the Sieg Heil on Inauguration Day, are just a few examples of what precipitated the quick drop in price. By the time President Trump had rejected Musk’s advice to forgo sweeping tariffs on many of Tesla’s critical production and trading partners, the EV company was in trouble. Since the announcement of reciprocal tariffs from the Rose Garden on April 2, the stock’s value has more or less stayed the same. Tesla faces a revenue problem from two sources, Musk’s image and tariffs, and could paint a darker picture of the company’s future if they go unresolved.
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