Elon Musk fires back at Trump's claim that his companies will still enjoy subsidies
Musk, however, begs to differ.
"The 'subsidies' he's talking about simply do not exist," Musk wrote in an X post on the same day.
The Trump administration has already scrapped or slapped expiry dates on every clean energy incentive "while leaving massive oil & gas subsidies untouched," Musk wrote in his post.
Musk's EV company, Tesla, is already feeling the pinch. Tesla said during its earnings call on Wednesday that removing the $7,500 EV credit under Trump's " One Big Beautiful Bill" would affect its US sales.
Vaibhav Taneja, the company's chief financial officer, said the "abrupt change" meant the company has a " limited supply of vehicles in the US this quarter."
SpaceX, on its part, wins federal contracts on merit, Musk said in his X post on Thursday. Musk said his rocket company is "doing a better job for less money. Rerouting SpaceX's work to "other aerospace companies would leave astronauts stranded and taxpayers on the hook for twice as much," he added.
The White House, Tesla, and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Threats and market jitters
Musk had been a prominent backer of Trump during last year's presidential campaign and enjoyed a close relationship with Trump.
Musk spent at least $277 million supporting Trump and other GOP candidates in the 2024 elections. Shortly after Trump's victory in November, he headed the White House DOGE office and led the administration's cost-cutting efforts.
That was until last month, when Musk and Trump began to turn on each other.
Their relationship started to break down on June 5, when Musk attacked Trump's signature tax bill in an X post, calling it a "MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK." He also claimed credit for Trump's victory in last year's election.
"Such ingratitude," Musk wrote.
Hours later, Trump threatened to cancel Musk's government contracts in a Truth Social post, saying it would be the "easiest way to save money in our Budget." That drew a tit-for-tat response from Musk, who said he would decommission SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, which is used in NASA missions, before walking it back.
Musk expressed regret over what he had said about Trump a few days later. Some of his posts about Trump "went too far," Musk said.
The détente, however, didn't last.
On July 1, Trump said DOGE should take a "good, hard, look" at Musk's companies after Musk said he would start a new political party and defeat GOP politicians who voted for Trump's tax bill.
"Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE," he added.
Musk dared Trump to follow through on his threat: "I am literally saying CUT IT ALL. Now."
The markets were not as confident as Musk. Tesla's stock fell by 5% after Trump's post on July 1. Tesla's shares are down by over 24% year to date.
Musk's business empire has received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits over the last 20 years, per an analysis published by The Washington Post in February.
On Wednesday, Musk told investors on Tesla's earnings call that the company is entering a "weird transition period where we will lose a lot of incentives in the US."
"Does that mean like we could have a few rough quarters? Yeah, we probably could have a few rough quarters," Musk said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures edge up as Trump-EU trade deal kicks off huge week in markets
US stock futures ticked up on Monday after the US and European Union struck a trade pact to lead off a packed week of Big Tech earnings, a Federal Reserve meeting, inflation data, the July jobs report, and President Trump's Aug. 1 deadline to lock in key trade deals. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) were up about 0.1%, while S&P 500 futures (ES=F) gained 0.2%, but both were coming off earlier premarket highs. Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ=F) put on roughly 0.4%, after the three major indexes closed Friday with gains. The US and EU have agreed on a framework deal to set Trump's tariffs on Europe's goods at a baseline 15%, compared with the 30% threatened. Trump called the pact 'the biggest of them all,' while von der Leyen said that "15% is not to be underestimated, but it is the best we could get." The news eased fears of a harmful trade war and boosted market sentiment, putting stocks on track to resume a rally that saw the S&P 500 (^GSPC) notch its fifth all-time high in a row on Friday. Read more: The latest on Trump's tariffs At the same time, hopes are rising for a US-China deal. Officials are meeting for talks in Stockholm on Monday to tackle roadblocks and to extend the existing tariff truce by three months, media reports said. Beijing currently faces an Aug, 12 due date for higher US levies, while other countries race to beat Friday's deadline. Meanwhile, Trump has frozen US tech export curbs to help the talks and efforts to set up an in-person meeting with President Xi, per the Financial Times. Investor eyes are now turning to a jam-packed week on Wall Street. Heavyweight earnings highlight the most intense stretch of the season, with more than 150 S&P 500 companies set to report. Meta Platforms (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) lead off Wednesday, followed by Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) on Thursday. Read more: Full earnings coverage in our live blog Beyond earnings, the Fed begins its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, with an interest-rate decision expected Wednesday afternoon. While the central bank is expected to keep rates at 4.25%-4.50%, the watch is on for signs that policymakers are warming to a rate cut in September. It all comes alongside legal battles to open up the Fed's meetings to investor eyes, as well as Trump's general pressure on the central bank and Chair Jerome Powell. On the data front, inflation and labor will be in the spotlight. The July reading of the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, is forecast to show a modest monthly and annual uptick on its release on Thursday. Also on deck: a flurry of jobs data. Tuesday's JOLTS update and Wednesday's ADP private payrolls print will set the stage for the crucial July jobs report on Friday. Fed meeting, jobs report, Big Tech earnings — and Trump's deadline: What to watch this week The impact of President Trump's policies on the economy is about to get a lot clearer. Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer takes a look at what to expect this week and why it matters: Read more here. Trending tickers: Nike, Samsung Electronics and US liquefied natural gas stocks Here are some top stocks trending on Yahoo Finance in premarket trading: Nike (NKE) shares were up over 3% before the bell on Monday after receiving an upgrade from JPMorgan (JPM), moving its rating from neutral to overweight and setting a new price target of $93, up from the previous $64. Samsung Electronics ( stock rose 6% after announcing that it had secured a 16.5 billion deal to make Tesla's next-generation AI chip. Shares in US liquefied natural gas developers surged in premarket trading on Monday, after the European Union pledged to purchase $750 billion worth of the super-cooled fuel over the next three years as part of a sweeping trade pact. NextDecade (NEXT), Venture Global (VG), and Cheniere Energy (LNG)jumped between 7% and 8.8%. Samsung to make AI chips for Tesla under $16.5 billion deal Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF) has landed a $16.5 billion deal to make Tesla's (TSLA) next-generation AI chip. The agreement, which runs through the end of 2033, will see the South Korean company produce the AI6 semiconductor at an upcoming plant in Texas. Shares of Tesla stepped up 1.5% in premarket trading, after its CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X that the EV maker had struck the multibillion-dollar deal. Meanwhile, Samsung's Seoul-traded stock rose almost 7% to its highest level since September. 'The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate,' Musk wrote. "The $16.5B number is just the bare minimum. Actual output is likely to be several times higher." Bloomberg reports: Read more here. Oil rises with EU-US trade deal locked in Oil prices eked out gains as the US and the EU finalized details of a trade deal ahead of Trump's Aug. 1 deadline. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. European stock futures rise on US-EU trade deal announcement Futures in European stock indexes saw positive bumps early morning Monday as the markets reacted to the announcement of a tariff deal between the US and the EU Interest in individual stocks in carmakers, luxury goods makers, and alcohol conglomerates is rising ahead of the market open Monday with those industries the most impacted by the deal. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. Fed meeting, jobs report, Big Tech earnings — and Trump's deadline: What to watch this week The impact of President Trump's policies on the economy is about to get a lot clearer. Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer takes a look at what to expect this week and why it matters: Read more here. The impact of President Trump's policies on the economy is about to get a lot clearer. Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer takes a look at what to expect this week and why it matters: Read more here. Trending tickers: Nike, Samsung Electronics and US liquefied natural gas stocks Here are some top stocks trending on Yahoo Finance in premarket trading: Nike (NKE) shares were up over 3% before the bell on Monday after receiving an upgrade from JPMorgan (JPM), moving its rating from neutral to overweight and setting a new price target of $93, up from the previous $64. Samsung Electronics ( stock rose 6% after announcing that it had secured a 16.5 billion deal to make Tesla's next-generation AI chip. Shares in US liquefied natural gas developers surged in premarket trading on Monday, after the European Union pledged to purchase $750 billion worth of the super-cooled fuel over the next three years as part of a sweeping trade pact. NextDecade (NEXT), Venture Global (VG), and Cheniere Energy (LNG)jumped between 7% and 8.8%. Here are some top stocks trending on Yahoo Finance in premarket trading: Nike (NKE) shares were up over 3% before the bell on Monday after receiving an upgrade from JPMorgan (JPM), moving its rating from neutral to overweight and setting a new price target of $93, up from the previous $64. Samsung Electronics ( stock rose 6% after announcing that it had secured a 16.5 billion deal to make Tesla's next-generation AI chip. Shares in US liquefied natural gas developers surged in premarket trading on Monday, after the European Union pledged to purchase $750 billion worth of the super-cooled fuel over the next three years as part of a sweeping trade pact. NextDecade (NEXT), Venture Global (VG), and Cheniere Energy (LNG)jumped between 7% and 8.8%. Samsung to make AI chips for Tesla under $16.5 billion deal Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF) has landed a $16.5 billion deal to make Tesla's (TSLA) next-generation AI chip. The agreement, which runs through the end of 2033, will see the South Korean company produce the AI6 semiconductor at an upcoming plant in Texas. Shares of Tesla stepped up 1.5% in premarket trading, after its CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X that the EV maker had struck the multibillion-dollar deal. Meanwhile, Samsung's Seoul-traded stock rose almost 7% to its highest level since September. 'The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate,' Musk wrote. "The $16.5B number is just the bare minimum. Actual output is likely to be several times higher." Bloomberg reports: Read more here. Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF) has landed a $16.5 billion deal to make Tesla's (TSLA) next-generation AI chip. The agreement, which runs through the end of 2033, will see the South Korean company produce the AI6 semiconductor at an upcoming plant in Texas. Shares of Tesla stepped up 1.5% in premarket trading, after its CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X that the EV maker had struck the multibillion-dollar deal. Meanwhile, Samsung's Seoul-traded stock rose almost 7% to its highest level since September. 'The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate,' Musk wrote. "The $16.5B number is just the bare minimum. Actual output is likely to be several times higher." Bloomberg reports: Read more here. Oil rises with EU-US trade deal locked in Oil prices eked out gains as the US and the EU finalized details of a trade deal ahead of Trump's Aug. 1 deadline. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. Oil prices eked out gains as the US and the EU finalized details of a trade deal ahead of Trump's Aug. 1 deadline. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. European stock futures rise on US-EU trade deal announcement Futures in European stock indexes saw positive bumps early morning Monday as the markets reacted to the announcement of a tariff deal between the US and the EU Interest in individual stocks in carmakers, luxury goods makers, and alcohol conglomerates is rising ahead of the market open Monday with those industries the most impacted by the deal. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. Futures in European stock indexes saw positive bumps early morning Monday as the markets reacted to the announcement of a tariff deal between the US and the EU Interest in individual stocks in carmakers, luxury goods makers, and alcohol conglomerates is rising ahead of the market open Monday with those industries the most impacted by the deal. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Traders Hedging Record Rally Dabble in Exotic Options
(Bloomberg) -- Investors looking to protect against a pullback with stocks at peaks are venturing beyond plain-vanilla options. The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Budapest's Most Historic Site Gets a Controversial Rebuild Trump Administration Sues NYC Over Sanctuary City Policy The steady grind higher in the S&P 500 Index has pushed most gauges of implied and realized volatility to the lowest levels in months — in some cases years. The collapse in volatility after the April tariff shock has surprised many investors, given the geopolitical tensions and uncertainty around the impact of levies on corporate earnings. With a whiff of complacency in the market and a resurgence of meme-stock mania signaling euphoria among investors, strategists across Wall Street are talking more about picking up some protection against a retreat from the highs. Hedging is likely to gain traction both in the context of upcoming earnings and tariff deadlines, and the seasonal trend for the Cboe Volatility Index to rise through the third quarter from July lows. But simple strategies can be tricky in a rising market, where the few, small dips are seen as buying opportunities. Vanilla put options quickly fall out of the money as the index rises, forcing investors to keep shifting positions higher to maintain their desired level of downside protection. So strategists are pitching over-the-counter alternatives. At UBS Group AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co., they have recently recommended so-called lookback or re-settable put options, where the strike follows the market higher and — in the case of lookback puts — is set at the highest closing print during the life of the trade. Those are currently trading at a historically narrow premium to vanilla puts, JPMorgan strategists including Bram Kaplan wrote in a note earlier this month. 'Hedging is very much in focus,' said Antoine Porcheret, head of institutional structuring for the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Citigroup Inc. 'We have seen decent buying flows in the lookback put as it is cheap by historical standards since the value of the lookback feature is a function of implied volatility, which is low.' UBS strategist Kieran Diamond wrote in note last week that historically, a market on the highs is more likely to go higher than reverse, thus increasing the chance of a vanilla put struck today becoming deeper out of the money. A lookback put implemented from a market high would have shifted the strike of a two-month put at 95% of the spot level 3.4% higher on average over the past 10 years, and the lookback feature costs only 0.4% more than the vanilla put, he said. The best scenario to buy a lookback put is when the market rallies and then collapses. In such cases, the additional payoff versus the vanilla version can be significant. 'There was a wave of interest in the lookback hedge payoff earlier in the year, when spot was near highs and vols had dropped towards lows,' said Pete Clarke, UBS's global head of volatility strategy. 'Following the latest rally and vol reset, we've seen them actively quoted once again.' S&P 500 futures were 0.2% higher as of 6:40 a.m. New York time on Monday. Markets get another test in the coming week with the Federal Reserve rate decision, US employment and gross domestic product data, and the tariff deadline — plus a slew of big tech earnings. Meanwhile, the re-emergence this month of wild swings in meme stocks will also likely have institutional investors reaching for protection trades, rather than chasing further gains. In 2021, retail-frenzied gains marked a spurt of euphoria for stocks, with moves that quickly faded. The interest in lookback puts 'is mostly from accounts other than hedge funds, such as long-only asset managers and private banks,' Porcheret said. 'Hedge funds and especially volatility-arbitrage accounts tend to opt for cheapened downside structures as opposed to a lookback which carries additional cost.' Volatility on technology stocks has been hit especially hard, with Asym 500 founder Rocky Fishman pointing out in a note last week that 10-day realized volatility on the Nasdaq 100 Index had fallen to the lowest level since 2021. 'Nasdaq and generally Tech has been a popular underlying as the volatility there has been especially crushed,' Porcheret said. (Updates with S&P 500 futures in 11th paragraph. An earlier version corrected spelling of firm name in penultimate paragraph.) Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk Confessions of a Laptop Farmer: How an American Helped North Korea's Wild Remote Worker Scheme Scottish Wind Farms Show How to Counter Nimby Opposition ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Washington Post
11 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Georgia Republican Mike Collins joins field seeking to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026
ATLANTA — Georgia Republican Mike Collins said Monday that he will join the field challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in the state the GOP has named as their top target to add a Senate seat in 2026. A second-term member of Congress from a district east of Atlanta, Collins becomes the newest top Republican to get into the primary race. U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter is already running, while state Insurance Commissioner John King dropped out. Also expected to run is former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley .
