Tesla exec cancels Rome conference trip over security concerns
A Tesla senior executive has cancelled her attendance at a conference in Rome over fears of protests surrounding the carmaker in response to CEO Elon Musk's right-wing activism.
Tesla cars, infrastructure and offices have recently become targets of vandalism in several countries, including Italy. The group's sales have nosedived, with its share price, which has lost more than 30% this year.
Samantha Harris, Tesla's global sustainability lead, had been due to speak at Regenerative Futures, a conference planned in Rome for May 16-17 by the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability (EIIS).
'Given the recent protests and violence against Tesla, and now in Rome, I've been asked to hold my external presence and travel. I won't be able to attend,' she said in an email to the EIIS seen by Reuters.
A fire at a Tesla dealership in Rome last month destroyed 17 cars in what tech billionaire Musk described as an act of 'terrorism'.
Drone images of the fire showed the burnt out remains of cars lined up in a parking lot, with two rows of vehicles back-to-back and a third row some distance away.
Musk, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has been working to eliminate wasteful US public spending through the department of government efficiency (Doge).
However, he said on Tuesday he would cut back the time he devotes to Doge to spend more time running his many companies.
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They are going to cool off a bit and talk things over. But in the words of Anchorman, boy, that escalated quickly! Selling in Tesla was HEAVY, with $153bn wiped out in one day. There is a whole cluster of related items here - we saw the likes of Palantir also hit hard, down almost 8%. Tesla, though, is coming back in pre-market trade. BTD is ever present. To summarise where we are - Musk has been criticising the tax and spending bill all week, which prompted Trump to talk about his disappointment with his 'former' ally. Musk then went full tweetstorm and launched a series of attacks on X, suggesting that Trump appears in unreleased files related to Jeffrey Epstein. Trump shot back, saying Musk "went CRAZY" and was asked to leave the administration, while he also threatened to cut government contracts with Musk's companies. Tesla's stock price dropped 14%. Clearly this introduces new risks for TSLA – the argument that Musk's closeness to Trump was bullish for the stock because Trump always promotes his favourites is kinda becoming unstuck. For instance, the assumption was it would mean an easier path for the rollout of robotaxis or some other favourable policy decision - that is now very much in doubt. Enmity with Trump changes the regulatory environment. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ But, I guess, TACO...? I subsidies were always on the chopping block, but I guess Musk thought his 'influence' at court would help..I guess he found out he'd been labouring under a misapprehension. 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Before this Trump-Musk spat S&P 500 e-mini futures touched 6,016, the highest since late February, as reports that Trump had held a phone call with China's Xi Jinping. Trump said he has had a "very good" phone call amid their ongoing trade war, during which they agreed to more tariff talks. Meanwhile, markets are braced for today's nonfarm payrolls report from the US. It's expected at 130,000 in May, down from the 177,000 increase recorded in April, with the unemployment rate sticking at 4.2%. Wall Street fell yesterday as Tesla dragged the broader tech sector down, with the Nasdaq Composite down 0.83% and the Nasdaq 100 off 0.8%. The S&P 500 fell half a percent, while the Dow was 0.25% lower. European stock markets were mixed in muted early trade on Friday, with investors looking over their shoulders at trade wars and the economic data in the US, which is going to be important for sentiment. Ultimately, really bad economic data may be coming, but it could spur the Fed into action. 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