Trump-Musk rlft: President Donald Trump told he’s “not even thinking about” Elon Musk after they explosively sparred on social media, adding that he won’t be speaking with Musk for “a while.” Yesterday, the president floated the idea of cutting the tech billionaire’s government contracts, and Musk claimed Trump’s name was in the Jeffrey Epstein files. Here’s our bloW-by-blow of the fight.
Agenda bll: The rift started with criticism of Trump’s massİve tax and domestic policy bill, which the Congressional Budget office estimates Would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit
Over the next decade. GOP leaders are hoping to send it to Trump’s desk by July 4.
Harvard latest: Meanwhile, a federal judge has halted Trump’s latest attempt to block international students from coming to Harvard. The judge seta hearing for mid-June to hear arguments over whether she should block Trump’s proclamationindefinitely.
How Trump could potentially inflict damage to Musk’s
Tesla stock soared in the months after the presidential election because investors were convinced Donald Trump was abbout to
do massive favors for his largest financial backer, CEO ElonMusk. But Trump can also do great damage to Musk’s many business interests.
The risk of that damage is one reason Tesla shares tumbled 14%in trading following their public spat yesterday.
But it’s not just Tesla that could be at risk. SpaceX depends on government contracts for a significant share of its revenue. And Musk’s companies all face government regulation.
Musk also faces possible investigations of his activities from agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trump appeared to threaten that he would take action against Musk.
“The easiest way to save mone y in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, İs to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” he posted Thursday.
Tesla has relatively few government contracts. But there are numerous federal policies that directly affect its finances, including a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle buyers that allows Tesla and other automakers to raise prices. That was likely worth billions to Tesla last year alone.
Tesla also reported more than Ş8 billion in sales Over six years of regulatory credits to other automakers to help them comply with federal and state emission standards. Trump wants to rollback those standards and strip states of the povwer to set t heir own emissions rules, which would destroy the market for those credit sales.
election because investors were convinced Donald Trump was about to domassive favors for his largest financial backer, Tesla CEO Elon Musk. But Trump can also do great damage to Musk’s many business interests.
The risk of that damage is one reason that Tesla shares (TSLA) tumbled 14%in trading Thursday following the very nasty and public spat between Trum pand Musk.
But it’s not just Tesla that could be at risk. SpaceX depends on government contracts for a significant share of its revenue. And Tesla, SpaceX and Musk’ so ther companies, including social media platform X, artificial intelligence company xAl and brain-computer interface company Neuralink all face regulation from the federal government.
In addition, Musk faces possible investigations of his own activities from agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is looking into whether he violated rules when purchased his initial stake in X, then called Twitter, ahead of launching his takeover bid for the company.
Trump appeared to threaten that he would take such action against Musk, a she posted on his Truth social media platform Thursday that, “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Bilions and Bilions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
To which Musk replied on his social media platform X: “This just gets better and better,” followed by two laughing face emojis, along with “Go ahead, make my day.”
Tesla has relatively few government contracts. But there are numerous federal policies that directly affect its finances, including a $7,500 tax credit for alone.
In addition, Tesla reported more than $8 bilion in sales over six years of regulatory credits to other automakers to help them comply with federal and state emission standards. Trump is in favor of rolling back those standard sand stripping states of the power to set their own emissions rules, which would destroy the market for those credit sales.
A note from JPMorgan to clients Thursday estimates the loSs of the EV tax credit could cost Tesla $1.2 billion a year and the loss of regulatory credit sales another $2 billion.
X
Musk has also pegged the future of the growth of Tesla on operating a self-driving taxi service without any driver on board. Tesla’s current “full self driving” offering (FSD) requires a driver to be present to take control of the car. The service is due to debut in Austin, Texas, later this month. He admits his ambitious growth plans could be constrained by regulations.
In addition, the federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also already announced investigations into accidents involving existing Tesla cars operating with FSD. Many Tesla fans assumed those investigations would be dropped under a Tesla-friendly Trump administration.
SpaceX has received $15.2 billion in contracts from NASA, as well as $5.8billion from the Department of Defense, along with a few million more from other agencies, according to USASpending.gov.
Replacing SpaceX on those contracts, however, is not realistic. That’sbecause there is no other company available to replace it. For example,
