Elon Musk Speaks During A town Hall Event In Green Bay, Wisconsin<\/p>\n
The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Elon Musk\u2019s tantrum over President Donald Trump\u2019s budget bill that adds trillions of dollars to the federal deficit raises the possibility that the intemperate billionaire is once again courting new risks for his companies, especially Tesla. The spat comes as the carmaker is expected to post a big drop in electric vehicle sales tomorrow. Meanwhile, it will soon lose federal incentives for EV sales and charging services, and its proposed robotaxi business may hinge on whatever federal regulations the Trump administration cooks up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump administration knows how important AVs are to Musk and Tesla\u2019s future, so doing what it can to slow down the robotaxi rollout would be especially painful,\u201d said Loren McDonald, chief analyst for Paren, an electric vehicle industry data company. \u201cThe other impact of course is on contracts between the US government and SpaceX, which could now be very much at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nMusk\u2019s companies have sucked in at least $30 billion of public support since 2010\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Given how reliant Tesla and SpaceX have been on federal support for the past 15 years, he has much to lose. Forbes estimates<\/a> Musk\u2019s companies have sucked in at least $30 billion of public support since 2010, including lucrative rocket launch and satellite contracts for SpaceX, a low-cost federal loan for Tesla\u2019s first factory and billions of dollars of free money it generates selling federal and California pollution credits.<\/p>\n
\u201cElon 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 said on Truth Social.<\/a> \u201cNo more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. is highly reliant on SpaceX, so it\u2019s less likely to suffer in the near term. Tesla, however, will be hurt by the elimination of $7,500 tax credits for EV buyers, now likely to phase out in September, and the end of government support for a national EV charging network it\u2019s benefited from. The company could also suffer if the U.S. Transportation Department were to craft stricter national safety requirements for autonomous vehicles and robotaxis, which Musk has been touting as a major new revenue source for Tesla.<\/p>\n
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After a decade of steady global growth, Tesla\u2019s sales have stalled over the past year, dropping 13% in the first quarter. Consensus estimates expect Austin-based Tesla will report deliveries tomorrow of about 380,000 electric cars and crossovers in the three months that ended June 30, down 14% from a year ago. And that may be optimistic. Analysts like Deutsche Bank\u2019s Edison Yu see a far sharper decline, down as much as 20% to about 355,000 units, with sales plunging most sharply in Europe, down in North America and even in China, Tesla\u2019s biggest profit center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect Tesla\u2019s 2Q25 deliveries to miss sell-side consensus expectations, but this shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise as buy-side expectations are already materially lower at the moment,\u201d Yu said in a research note. For the full year, he expects the company to sell about 1.6 million vehicles, down nearly 10% from 2024.<\/p>\n
Tesla\u2019s slide over the past year coincided with what was until recently Musk\u2019s outspoken and financially generous support for Trump. But after stepping down in May from his role leading the DOGE initiative, much-criticized for haphazardly slashing thousands of federal jobs, Musk clashed with Trump over the so-called \u201cOne Big Beautiful Budget Bill\u201d in early June, complaining about how much it increased federal spending. Six days later, he reversed course and tried to smooth things over with the president, even deleting a post linking Trump to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. But he broke his relative silence last week after the release of a draft version of the Senate bill which would increase the deficit by $3.2 trillion, even more than a version that passed the House by a single vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country \u2013 the PORKY PIG PARTY!!\u201d he wrote on X<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n
While Musk\u2019s criticism has focused on government spending, he\u2019s also complained<\/a> that \u201cTrump’s bill will eliminate millions of jobs in America and cause huge strategic damage to our country.\u201d The plan \u201cgives concessions to old industries but will destroy future industries.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to his complaints and claims he\u2019ll spend heavily to defeat members of Congress who voted for the legislation, Trump said<\/a> he might have to \u201cput DOGE on Elon…DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. I don\u2019t think he should be playing that game with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump even suggested he would \u201ctake a look\u201d at potentially deporting the world\u2019s wealthiest person, a native South African who\u2019s a naturalized U.S. citizen. That\u2019s probably unlikely, but he can inflict significant pain<\/a> on his former patron by turning up the heat on investigations into Tesla. For example, he could push the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to intensify its long-running probe of Tesla\u2019s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features that are linked to multiple fatal accidents. Or he could pressure the Securities and Exchange Commission to review the veracity of some of Musk\u2019s public Tesla comments, and even scrutinize the company\u2019s heavy reliance on manufacturing in China.<\/p>\n
“He’s upset that he’s losing his EV mandate. He’s very upset,\u201d Trump told reporters on Tuesday. \u201cHe could lose a lot more than that, I can tell you that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tesla shares fell 5.3% to $300.71 in Nasdaq trading on Tuesday. They\u2019re down 26% this year.<\/p>\n
More From ForbesForbesTesla\u2019s Newest Nightmare Is Donald TrumpBy Alan Ohnsman<\/a>ForbesElon Musk Is A Billionaire Federal Welfare VampireBy Alan Ohnsman<\/a>ForbesThings Are Bad At Tesla. They\u2019re About To Get Much Worse.By Alan Ohnsman<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk Speaks During A town Hall Event In Green Bay, Wisconsin The Washington Post via Getty Images…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[90707,1305,8866,8865,12,8180,298,1757,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-230813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-budget-bill","9":"tag-electric-vehicles","10":"tag-elon","11":"tag-musk","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-senate","14":"tag-tesla","15":"tag-trump","16":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114781197694701498","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}