Tesla Stock Crashes Nearly 18% Over Musk-Trump Spat, Sheds $180 Billion In Market Cap
The Musk-Trump feud eroded more than $180 billion off Tesla's market value at one point.
Tesla Inc. stock became a casualty as Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk publically spat with US President Donald Trump on Thursday. The share price plunged nearly 18% during New York trading hours, wiping more than $180 billion off the automaker’s market value at one point, as per Bloomberg data.
The stock settled 14.3% lower, still vapourising $152 billion in value.
Trump said he is "very disappointed" with Musk for repeatedly criticising a contentious government budget. Musk responded saying Trump would have lost the 2024 election without him.
"Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore. I was surprised," Trump told reporters at the White House. He was asked for a reaction to Musk slamming the 'Big Beautiful Bill' passed by the US House of Representatives and now heads to the US Senate.
"He knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem and he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to cut EV mandate," Trump said.
“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," Trump added. The leader further said he is "very disappointed with Elon" whom he has "helped a lot".
Musk soon responded through a post on social media platform X saying: "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!"
The Tesla CEO also reshared a 2013 post of Trump that criticised Republicans for extending the US debt ceiling with the caption 'Wise words'. He even pinned the post on his profile.
The feud escalated after Elon Musk posted a provocative poll on X, possibly hinting at forming a new political party.
"Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?" the billionaire entrepreneur asked his 220 million followers.
He also dropped a bombshell, claiming the US president was in the Epstein files, an alleged list of well-known public figures linked with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who had allegedly procured underage girls for sex with those people.
Notably, since Jan. 20 when Trump entered office for a second term, the stock has gained 56% till a day ago.
Last month, Musk quit DOGE and said he would scale back his political activities to focus on his businesses which range from Tesla to SpaceX and Neuralink.
