Tesla Shares Climb on Fundstrat Buying Signal
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock jumped 5.9% Friday after Fundstrat's Tom Lee called the recent pullback a good entry point, arguing that Elon Musk's public split with Donald Trump helps the EV maker shed political baggage.
Lee told CNBC that disassociating Tesla from MAGA controversies ingratiates Musk with the broader U.S. and global audience, offsetting backlash that drove TSLA's shares down roughly 30% year-to-datemaking it the worst-performing large-cap stock of 2025.
Despite that slide, Tesla remains the 10th largest company by market capitalization, thanks in part to Q1 deliveries of 387,000 vehicles and guidance for 1.8 million units in fiscal 2025.
Lee noted that while Trump could threaten to cancel Musk-related federal contracts, Tesla's services are too integral to be cut, and he believes the political drama, not just a general EV slowdown, has weighed on the stock. Indeed, broader EV demand has cooled after booms in 2021 and 2022, but Tesla's scaleits 65% gross margin on Model 3 and Y vehicles and expanding energy-storage businessstill offers upside as manufacturing costs decline.
Investors seized on Lee's framework, sending TSLA higher even as U.S. EV sales dipped 8% in April amid rising interest rates and supply-chain hiccups. Why It Matters: Today's bounce suggests that, despite headwinds from politics and a softened EV market, analysts see value in Tesla's long-term growth trajectory, production scale and margin profile, making it an attractive entry for contrarian investors betting on a rebound. Investors will be watching Tesla's Q2 delivery figures, due in late July, and any updates on Musk's broader political positioning to gauge whether this rally can extend.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
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And it takes a mastery of government and near-endless patience to achieve what Vought really wants: stripping down what he has long seen as a bloated federal budget, bringing an unwieldy federal bureaucracy to heel and drastically transforming the foundation of the U.S. government. Musk arrived with grand plans to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget but left his role having cut less than 10 percent of that figure, forced to admit that the sprawling federal bureaucracy was not as easy to wrap his arms around as he originally thought. 'Everyone thinks they can come to D.C. and fix it,' said one former Trump administration official. 'But you have to have a really good understanding of this town, how the policies are cooked and baked. At OMB, that's the team. These are seasoned policy guys. They've been working on their issue areas forever.' 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Vought has long been a proponent of the idea that the executive can legally impound, or withhold, spending that has been approved by Congress. Critics say only Congress has the power of the purse. Though an OMB memo from the early days of the administration suggested it was poised to wage that fight — by abruptly freezing all federal financial assistance — the office quickly pulled the order back. Vought's allies say he's being deliberate about which fights he picks over impoundment and is waiting to build a solid legal case. Another interim strategy if Congress declines to approve the package is pocket rescissions, a process in which the White House would send the rescissions package at the end of the fiscal year and then run out the clock on Congress's ability to act on the proposal, leading to the automatic cancellation of funds when the fiscal year ends. 'I've worked closely with him for 15 years, and one of the things that he has always done a pretty good job at doing is thinking out into the future,' Winfree said. 'With this recissions package that he's moving on the Hill right now — it isn't just about the recissions. He's thinking about, how do the moves on this package set up the next move that sets up the next move?' Former administration officials say that Vought learned from the failed recissions fight of 2018 — spearheaded by then-Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney — by building relationships on the Hill that he hopes will get the package across the finish line this year. Now, 'I think they're more attuned to the push and pull here, and the need to find the center of gravity with the Hill,' a second former Trump administration official said, even if that means making small tweaks to the recissions package to get it across the finish line in the Senate. 'Give them a win, and then it should be fine.' Others are less optimistic about the totality of the administration's legislative agenda, including the president's 'one big beautiful bill,' which Vought also is playing a key role in shepherding. 'Russ is going to have to get in there with some hand-to-hand combat and get these guys to 'yes,'' a third former administration official said. 'If this bill passes, Trump's going to have everything. He'll have [deregulation] on steroids with Russ. He'll have tariffs as a negotiating tool and tactic for China and he'll have [the] cost of living going down for all Americans. And that's the midterms. Like, the end.' 'If one of those things falters,' the person added, 'I think Republicans lose the midterms.'
