Tesla shares fall amid public feud between Musk, Trump
Washington, DC: Shares in Tesla plummeted on Thursday as Tesla CEO Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump fired salvos at each other amid fallout, The Hill reported. Tesla closed with a 14.6 per cent loss as the market closed on Thursday.
Trump expressed disappointment over Musk's criticism of the bill while Tesla's CEO accused the US president of "ingratitude".
Tensions between Musk and Trump erupted after the former's criticism of US President's tax and spending bill. Last week, Musk officially departed the Trump administration after a brief tenure as he headed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Amid the fallout with Trump, Elon Musk has claimed that US President's name is mentioned "in the Epstein files" and added that it is the "real reason they have not been made public."
In a post on X, Musk stated, "Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT."
In another post on X, Musk stated, "Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out."
Names of powerful people previously related to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in Manhattan jail in 2019, including Trump, Prince Andrew and former US President Bill Clinton, have been named in court documents associated with Epstein's years of sexual abuse, The Hill reported.
Before being elected in November, Trump said that he would have "no problem" releasing files related to Epstein, something some lawmakers have demanded on social media following Epstein's death. In 2024, Trump denied any association with Epstein.
Musk's allegation came just minutes after Trump threatened to cancel government contracts with Musk's companies. Musk stated that considering Trump's cancellation of government contracts with Tesla, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.
"In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX
will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately," Musk posted on X.
In a post shared on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump stated, "The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it."
Musk has criticised Trump's "big beautiful bill", urging Americans to lobby Congress to "KILL the BILL. In response to his criticism, Trump stated that he was "very surprised." During his meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump said, "Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore."
When asked about Elon Musk's criticism of tax policy bill, Trump said, "I've always liked Elon and that's why I was very surprised. You saw the words he had for me. The words are great. And he hasn't said anything about me that's bad. I'd rather have him criticize me than the bill because the bill is incredible. It's the biggest cut in the history of our country. We've never cut. It's about 1.6 trillion in cuts. It's the biggest tax cut. Tax, you would say, people's taxes will go way down, but it's the biggest tax cut in history. We are doing things in that bill that are unbelievable. And when you look at what we're doing for small businesses, for people, for middle-income people, all of the things we're doing, nobody's ever seen anything like it."
"And, you know, Elon's upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles. And, you know, they're having a hard time with the electric vehicles, and they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy. Elon knew this from the beginning. He knew it for a long time ago. That's been in there. That's been, I would say, JD, that hasn't changed. That's been right from the beginning. I think, Mr. Secretary, that hasn't changed at all, right from the beginning. But I know that it disturbed him," he added.
Trump stated that Musk recommended a Democrat to run NASA and he did not agree to it. He said, "He wanted and rightfully, he recommended somebody from, that he, I guess, knew very well. I'm sure he respected him, but to run NASA. And I didn't think it was appropriate. And he happened to be a Democrat, like, totally Democrat. And I say, you know, look, we won. We get certain privileges, and one of the privileges went out to appoint a Democrat. NASA is very important. We have great people. General Kane is going to be picking somebody with, we'll be checking him out, seeing -- but he wanted that person, a certain person, and we said no. And, yeah, I can understand why he's upset."
Trump mentioned that Musk endorsed him and campaigned for him and he is "disappointed" as Tesla CEO knew the inner workings of the tax bill better than anyone sitting here.
He said, "Elon endorsed me very strongly. He actually went up and campaigned for me... But I'm very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this (tax) bill better than almost anybody sitting here. He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the EV mandate, because that's billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair. We want to have cars of all types. We want to have gasoline, combustion, hybrids. We want to be able to sell everything... If you saw the statements he made about me. He said the most beautiful things about me, and he hasn't said bad about me personally, but I'm sure that'll be next. I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot..."
To these remarks, Musk replied on X, "False. This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!" He even called out Trump for ingratitude as the two disagreed on the latest US bill.
He also said, "Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate." "Such ingratitude", Musk posted on X.
Musk even conducted a poll on X, asking whether the US needs a new political party 'that actually represents the 80 per cent in the middle'.
Musk has spent at least USD 250 million in the presidential election last year boosting Trump's campaign. He even played a key role in the Trump administration as the DOGE head, The Hill reported.
His work in the administration weighed heavily on his companies, especially Tesla, which saw its stock plummet in the early months of the Trump administration. The shares have recovered in recent weeks as Musk announced exit from the administration.
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