Washington (AFP) – President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will buy a “brand new Tesla” in support of his top donor and close advisor, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, after share prices tanked amid recession fears and Musk’s controversial actions in Washington.
“To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform just after midnight on Tuesday. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has empowered Musk to slash federal government spending and headcounts as leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
But DOGE’s high-profile cost-cutting campaign has faced increasing backlash, including protests, court rulings, and some pressure from lawmakers. The turmoil has also tarnished the Tesla brand, with sales plummeting in Europe, share prices tumbling, and multiple reports of cars being vandalized. Unhappy Tesla owners have even slapped bumper stickers on their vehicles claiming they had purchased them “before Elon went crazy.”
“The Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for,” Trump’s post said. “I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American. Why should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???”
Musk, the world’s richest person, responded on his X platform, thanking the president. While Musk enjoys Trump’s confidence, polling shows the tech billionaire is deeply unpopular among ordinary Americans, and his cuts to government budgets have sparked angry confrontations between Republicans and their constituents at town halls.
– Slumping shares –
Tesla share prices continued to fall following a brief rally Tuesday, after closing more than 15 percent down on Monday, as uncertainty over Trump’s import tariffs and threats have left US financial markets in turmoil. The tech-heavy Nasdaq had tanked four percent Monday owing in part to the plunge in high-flying titans including Tesla, Apple, and Amazon.
Tesla has also seen its sales drop across Europe in recent weeks following Musk’s controversial support for far-right groups, including Germany’s AfD during the country’s recent election campaign. Tesla sales in Germany — Europe’s biggest auto market — plunged more than 76 percent year-on-year in February, official data showed. Overall sales in the European Union almost halved, on year, in January.
In early March, a dozen Teslas were torched at a dealership in France in what authorities treated as an arson attack, and the firm’s facilities have also been vandalized in the United States. Tesla has lost more than one-third of its market value since mid-December as Musk deepens his association with Trump. Meanwhile, Musk said his X platform was hit Monday by a major cyberattack, raising questions as to whether the politically divisive billionaire is being targeted or his decision to gut staff at what was once Twitter is haunting the social network.
© 2024 AFP
