Tesla stock (TSLA) sank nearly 5% Tuesday as the feud between CEO Elon Musk and President Trump reignited, with the president once again threatening to cut government subsidies across Elon Musk’s businesses, including Tesla and SpaceX (SPAX.PVT).
“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 his social media platform, Truth Social, early Tuesday.
“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE,” Trump added. “Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”
Read more about Tesla’s stock moves and today’s market action.
The threats followed Musk’s criticism of Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill over the weekend after the Senate advanced it with last-minute changes that would eliminate electric vehicle tax credits —which benefit Tesla customers — earlier than expected and add $1 trillion to the bill’s original price tag.
The megabill was passed by the Senate Tuesday, bringing it one step closer to becoming law. Its provision ending the EV credit would cut an estimated $1.2 billion from Tesla’s annual profit.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has received more than $21 billion in federal contracts, according to US spending data.
In one of his series of posts on his own platform, X, Musk called the bill “utterly insane and destructive [with] handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.” Musk’s critiques continued into the trading week, with the tech mogul proposing the formation of a new political party for the second time last month.
Tesla shares dropped 1.9% Monday as the Senate began voting on amendments to the bill in what’s called a vote-a-rama, which dragged into Tuesday morning.
Late Monday night, Musk posted an AI-generated image of Pinocchio with the word “liar” stamped across it, writing: “Anyone who campaigned on the PROMISE of REDUCING SPENDING , but continues to vote on the BIGGEST DEBT ceiling increase in HISTORY will see their face on this poster in the primary next year.”
Elon Musk in the Oval Office at the White House in May. (AP Foto/Evan Vucci) · ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trump’s Truth Social post threatening subsidies on Musk’s empire followed just a few hours later.
“Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate,” the president wrote.
The barbs revived a feud between the world’s two most powerful men in early June that erased more than $150 billion in value from Tesla in a single day.
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