Elon Musk's political adventure has been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride - Oval Office access and conference calls with world leaders at the President's golf resort at its peak and being threatened about his government contracts being scrapped and tax benefits being revoked at its worst.
But it is Musk's businesses that have borne the brunt of his political escapade, especially in the last 24 hours, after his public fallout with former friend and boss Donald Trump. Tesla has become the worst-performing large-cap stock this year. Its valuation was on a steady decline ever since Musk made his political ambitions public.
THE DECLINE
Its decline picked pace amid Trump's rhetoric about "beautiful" oil and his executive order on Day 1 of his second term ordering to "drill baby, drill" to "Make America Great Again". As Trump kept hard-selling vehicles that run on petroleum, the demand for Electric Vehicles or EVs fell sharply.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk's political controversies over his ties to far-right groups resulted in Tesla stock losing even more value after Trump took office in January. But the most devastating blow to the Tesla stock came after Thursday's explosive fallout when the two brash billionaires indulged in a no-holds-barred verbal duel resulting in an end to their partnership.
FREE FALL
Stock valuation went into free fall as markets opened after Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' was passed by House Republicans leading to Musk and Trump trading threats and insults. Tesla stock plunged more than 14 per cent, resulting in a wipeout of roughly $152 billion in a matter of hours.
With this, Tesla has lost more than $380 billion in valuation since the beginning of 2025 - making it the biggest loser among large-cap stocks. Tesla's market capitalization has fallen 29.3 per cent to $917 billion so far this year.
The firm, which ranked eighth globally in terms of market cap at the start of the year, is now on the verge of dropping out of the top 10 big companies globally.
THE EV-KILLER BILL
Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' is seen by Elon Musk as an EV-killer since the bill removes tax cuts or tax benefits given to electric vehicle manufacturers. For a firm like Tesla, this means tens of billions of dollars annually.
Donald Trump has now also threatened to cut Elon Musk's government subsidies and contracts, which give both Tesla and SpaceX "billions and billions of dollars" of benefits. Elon Musk's personal wealth has also taken a beating since the public feud, dropping by nearly $9 billion, according to Bloomberg's billionaire index.
'SUCH INGRATITUDE'
During the spat, Elon Musk reminded the "ungrateful" President that the reason he can call the White House his home, was because of Musk's financial and moral support during the election campaign last year, for which he had poured in hundreds of millions of dollars.
"Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate...Such ingratitude," Musk wrote in a post on X.
Musk has now suggested that Trump "should be impeached" and JD Vance should take over, claiming that the US President figures in the Epstein files over his links to child sex abuser and trafficker Jeffery Epstein.
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