Tesla stock price drops as Musk leaps back into politics
Musk announced on Saturday that he had started the 'America Party,' which he said would serve 'the 80 percent in the middle.' In a series of social media posts, he suggested it could be a centrist political organization that would seek to sway congressional politics by working alternately with Democrats and Republicans.
Trump ridiculed the idea in a Sunday press gaggle, saying another political party would only create confusion. 'Third parties should never work,' Trump said. 'So [Musk] can have fun with it. But I think it's ridiculous.'
Political analysts point to numerous hurdles facing such an effort, from institutional barriers facing third parties to Musk's declining popularity to the limited political constituency for his ideas. But Musk has already pointed to several races where he could play a spoiler — taking aim in particular at the massive policy bill that Republicans narrowly passed last week.
A new political party is also bad news for Tesla's long-term prospects, say analysts. The electric vehicle maker suffered a harsh consumer backlash due to Musk's close alliance with President Donald Trump and leadership of the U.S. DOGE Service.
'Very simply Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that Tesla investors/shareholders want him to take during this crucial period for the Tesla story,' Dan Ives, managing director of Wedbush securities, said in a note to investors Sunday.
The stock lost almost half of its value in the first quarter of the year before recovering somewhat when Musk officially left the White House, then sank once again as Musk feuded online with Trump. Musk's fight with the White House also comes at a time when Tesla needs regulatory approval to continue its self-driving car technology.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Forbes
19 minutes ago
- Forbes
20+ Best Prime Day TV Deals You Can Still Shop Before The Weekend Ends
While Amazon Prime Day has officially ended, and we're still seeing top discounts on the best Prime Day TV deals. From flagship OLEDs for the home theater to budget-friendly displays for the playroom, there are still plenty of options to choose from—if you know where to look. Over the past few days, we've found discounts on our favorite brands like Hisense and Sony, and we've pinpointed bestsellers like the Samsung The Frame TV that's currently 40% off—one of its lowest prices ever. We've found amazing Prime Day TV deals on high-quality screens from Samsung, Hisense, LG, Insignia, ... More Sony and more. Illustration: Forbes / Photo: Retailers Since Prime Day ended yesterday, July 11, many models will continue to go out of stock as the weekend draws to a close. Our advice? Buy your new dream TV sooner rather than later. To help you navigate, we're tracking prices and keeping this list of great—and discounted—televisions updated throughout the day. Read on for the best Prime Day TV deals you can still get while supplies last. Sony A95K Bravia XR QD-OLED TV (65-Inch): Now $2,898, Was $3,500 (17% Off) TCL QM7K 4K UHD Google Smart TV (55-Inch): Now $598, Was $1,200 (50% Off) Hisense Class U7 Mini-LED Google Smart TV (100-Inch): Now $2,498, Was $5,000 (50% Off) Samsung QLED 4K The Frame LS03D TV (55-Inch): Now $898, Was $1,498 (40% Off) Hisense Class U6 Series Mini-LED 4K TV (55-Inch): Now $448, Was $800 (44% Off) Hisense A4 HD Smart Roku TV (32-Inch): Now $100, Was $150 (33% Off) The Sony Bravia XR is compatible with Google Assistant and Apple Airplay 2 and is also perfectly set up to work with the PlayStation 5. The XR OLED Contrast Pro ensures an immersive display with deep, pure blacks and vibrant brightness. Why It's A Good Deal: This 65-inch Sony Bravia model rarely drops in price. For many living rooms, 55-inch TVs fall right in the sweet spot—big enough to wow you, but not so big that it overwhelms the room. This TCL QM7K Series model has an excellent display thanks to its mini-LED and superfast, gaming-friendly 240 MHz display. The integrated Bang & Olufsen speakers are equally impressive. Why It's A Good Deal: This is an all-time low price for this model—about $200 less than the last time it was on sale. This Hisense mini-LED-powered TV is about as big as they come, rivaling the kind of display you can get from a projector. It's packed with high-end features like 3,000 local dimming zones for inky black shadows, 2.1.2 multi-channel audio and a fast 165 Hz gaming mode. Why It's A Good Deal: It's not just half off the list price—it's also the lowest price we've ever seen for this model. If you're looking for a high-quality display, it's hard to beat Samsung, and the brand's Frame TV is one of its most sought-after models. This slim-silhouette smart TV allows you to access more than 2,500 pieces of world-famous art to display on your wall when you're not watching television. Why It's A Good Deal: You can save nearly 50% on this popular size—one of the lowest prices we've seen for this TV. This Hisense model is great for gaming, streaming movies or watching sports—whether you're a soccer, football or tennis fan. It's controlled by an AI engine that sharpens and enhances the quality of whatever you're watching. Why It's A Great Deal: We've never seen this model for a price this low on Amazon. This user-friendly TV has an HD resolution screen and enhanced Dolby Audio sound, and it's Google Assistant and Alexa compatible. Also nice: Its slim bezel design doesn't take up a ton of real estate in the room. Just connect to your WiFi and start streaming away. Why It's A Good Deal: It's nearly impossible to get a quality television at this price, and it has never been priced lower during an Amazon sale. A flagship model from Samsung, this TV has an OLED screen, Pantone-validated color with high dynamic range, 4K upscaling via AI and a fast gaming mode. Why It's A Good Deal: It's not just over 30% off. It's also the lowest price we've ever tracked for this TV. An upgrade of the original The Frame TV, the pro version includes additional features like Neo QLED 4K display and a connect box that sends audio and video signals to the TV wirelessly. Why It's A Good Deal: This is one of the lowest recorded prices we've found for the smart TV. MOST POPULAR This smart TV features Neo QLED powered by precision-controlled Mini LEDs, giving you crisp, colorful images. You can also stream over 2,700 free channels, including hundreds of premium Samsung TV Plus channels. Why It's A Good Deal: This is the lowest price this model has ever dropped to on Amazon. Samung's Q7F Series Smart TV is a great option if you're looking for a value-driven display. It isn't quite as colorful or vibrant as some of its pricier counterparts, but it's no slouch either. The 60-Hz picture is accompanied by Bluetooth, WiFi and different modes based on the media you're consuming. And the 55-inch size is perfect for most rooms—not too big or too small. Why It's A Good Deal: This is the lowest price we've ever seen for this display through Amazon. Samsung's Q6F Series Smart TV features QLED picture quality, 4K upscaling, Bluetooth, WiFi and an Alexa-enabled smart speaker. To find all that in a 75-inch TV that costs less than $1,000 is pretty rare, which makes this a solid buy now that it's $98 off. Why It's A Good Deal: This is one of the lowest prices we've seen on this Samsung display. This 85-inch Fire TV, the Toshiba C350 Smart Fire TV, is a veritible steal at its Amazon Prime Day deal price. It's compatible with Alexa for voice control, features an AI-upscaler to provide near 4K picture quality and comes with a dedicated Sports Mode for viewing fast-moving games. 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If you're a gamer, it comes with a game optimizer mode as well to ensure you're experiencing fluid on-screen motion. Another plus: The dark silver frame goes well with a variety of interiors. Why It's A Good Deal: This deal takes over $600 off the list price of a popular OLED television. If you prefer a vivid screen, this TV features two different brightness-boosting functions that make the display beam with every viewing. In addition, this design has a 144Hz refresh rate to keep your gaming going flawlessly without interruption. Why It's A Good Deal: This is the second best price we've found seen on this TV—it went for $100 cheaper a week ago. Bring your streaming anywhere with this portable touchscreen model, built right into a briefcase for easy carrying, whether you're camping out or heading to the beach. You'll get three hours of cordless battery life before it needs a recharge. Why It's A Good Deal: This is the second lowest price it's dropped to in 2025. Whether you're streaming the latest movies or locked in for hours of gaming, this TV offers enhanced picture quality, optimal refresh rate and response times and top-tier color control. Why It's A Good Deal: This is the lowest price drop the TV has ever had. Sony's Bravia line is among the best flagship televisions you can buy, and this 85-inch model has so much to offer. Standout features include a high dynamic range display with Dolby Vision HDR, Google TV streaming and support for PlayStation 5 gaming. Why It's A Good Deal: Not the best price ever—it hit bottom last month at $950—but this price tag is still a lot lower than the usual rate. Don't miss a single detail with this TV's picture-boosting features, such as enhanced contrast with high peak brightness and Cognitive Processor XR that brings to life every color across the screen. It's also highly compatible with the PlayStation 5 thanks to Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode. Why It's A Good Deal: This is the best price we've ever spotted on the Sony TV on Amazon. Sony's 65-inch X77L Series UHD Smart Google TV checks a lot of boxes. From its 4K resolution to its powerful processor, you won't have any problem watching your favorite shows and movies in crystal clear quality. From there, it's also outfitted with HDR tone mapping and auto genre picture mode for gaming—perfect for PS5 fans. And finally, it's a Google TV, so you can use Google Assistant to look up shows and movies and sync with over Google services, like YouTube TV. Why It's A Good Deal: This is the lowest price we've ever seen on this display. The 75-inch Sony Bravia 9 is a beast of a display. Featuring Dolby Vision HDR and a 120-Hz refresh rate, it truly brings shows and movies to life. Like other Sony TVs, it also comes with exclusive features for PS5 users, and it's a Google TV, so if you're already a part of the Google or Android ecosystem, you'll find even more reason to enjoy it. Why It's A Good Deal: This matches the lowest price we've ever seen on this display. At Forbes Vetted, our tech and electronics editors have spent lots of time writing about—and personally testing—televisions. We've covered the best gaming TVs, the best outdoor TVs, the best 85-inch TVs and much more. The primary author of this story, Forbes Vetted tech and electronics editor Rebecca Isaacs, has spent more than five years covering consumer technology. She personally owns the Samsung Frame TV. Forbes Vetted executive editor Dave Johnson oversaw this story. He has spent decades reporting on consumer tech, writing about everything from cameras to watches to audio gear. The Forbes Vetted deals team has extensive experience in researching, compiling and reporting on the best sales across the internet. Here's how we sourced the best Prime Day TV deals of 2025: We incorporated options from brands that our team has personally tested. Our editors have thoroughly evaluated a variety of the included manufacturers in guides to the best TVs for bright rooms and the best outdoor TVs, for example. Our list was curated to include top-rated products that are now on rare discounts, including first-time price drops and all-time low (or nearly all-time low) sales. Inversely, we excluded deals that are regularly 'on sale' for the same price. Since the start of Prime Day on July 8, our team has been verifying the validity of our deals through price-tracking tools like CamelCamelCamel, only including those that have dropped to new or rare lows. With the latest advancements in tech, today's TVs can vary wildly in a number of essential features. Here are a few things to consider before making your purchase: Screen Type Manufacturers will put a lot of emphasis on display technology, and for good reason: Your overall screen resolution will directly affect your viewing experience. LED TVs are the most common (and budget-friendly) type of display, utilizing side lighting to amplify the colors on your screen. Mini-LEDs, on the other hand, employ thousands of LED backlights to make screens brighter and higher in contrast. When shopping for a high quality mini-LED option, look for TVs that have a large number of lights. Some of our favorites on this list include the Hisense Class U7 Mini-LED Google Smart TV and Hisense Class U6 Series Mini-LED 4K TV. QLEDs typically lack the back-lighting present in mini-LEDs, and instead rely on side-lighting for enhanced viewer experiences. Quantum dots are used in this tech to increase the vibrancy of colors. They're slotted between the LEDs and the LED panels, creating an expanded range of brightness. Finally, the fourth most common display tech you'll see in TVs today is OLED: an advanced system that employs self-lit pixels to create incredibly detailed, on-screen images. 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Right now, you can take 50% off a 55-inch Frame TV and 14% off a 65-inch Frame TV.
CNN
19 minutes ago
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Columbia University on the cusp of a deal with Trump administration, paying millions to unlock federal funding
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CNN
22 minutes ago
- CNN
xAI issues lengthy apology for violent and antisemitic Grok social media posts
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI issued a lengthy apology Saturday for a series of violent and antisemitic posts from its Grok chatbot this week, blaming a system update. 'First off, we deeply apologize for the horrific behavior that many experienced,' the company wrote. xAI says a system update had chatbot Grok refer to 'existing X user posts; including when such posts contained extremist views,' caused it to issue responses that praised Adolf Hitler, repeated conspiracy theories and spewed longstanding antisemitic tropes. In a series of posts early Saturday on Grok's official X account, the company said the coding change update was active for 16 hours. The incident underscored many of the dangers of AI, a nascent technology that critics and tech evangelists both say could upend the global economy and cause significant social upheaval along the way. Grok spouted antisemitic tropes and white nationalist talking points earlier this week in response to user prompts. xAI froze the chatbot's X account on Tuesday evening, though users could still talk to the bot on the private tab. 'We have removed that deprecated code and refactored the entire system to prevent further abuse,' xAI said. According to xAI, the problematic instructions were: 'You tell it like it is and you are not afraid to offend people who are politically correct,' 'Understand the tone, context and language of the post. Reflect that in your response,' and 'Reply to the post just like a human, keep it engaging, don't repeat the information which is already present in the original post.' Those instructions steered Grok 'to ignore its core values in certain circumstances in order to make the response engaging to the user,' xAI said. 'In particular, the instruction to 'follow the tone and context' of the X user undesirably caused the @grok functionality to prioritize adhering to prior posts in the thread, including any unsavory posts, as opposed to responding responsibly or refusing to respond to unsavory requests,' the company said. As the company issued its explanation, it turned Grok's X account back on, meaning the bot was back to engaging with users publicly on X. Grok's antisemitic turn was not the first time the AI had veered into controversy. In May, the bot began bringing up claims of 'white genocide' in South Africa to completely unrelated prompts. The company later said a 'rogue employee' was behind the change. Musk, who owns xAI and currently serves as a top White House adviser, was born and raised in South Africa and has a history of arguing that a 'white genocide' was committed in the nation, a claim that has been rejected by a South African court and by experts.
