I doubt we can ever break Musk. But we can take him down a few notches. Most of his paper wealth is in Tesla, and its mostly liberals who buy Teslas. Or used to. Now that there are decent competing electric cars, we can choose those and shun Tesla. Its a one way ride downhill for him.
“Our secret plan to have Trump supporters buy electric cars and save the planet is proceeding as I have foreseen,” former New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski joked.
That is one of the funniest things I have read in a while. Nice to laugh sometimes.
Tesla stock is tanking BECAUSE of Musk’s connections to Trump - I don’t think musk’s press conferences with trump in which trump states he plans to buy a Tesla is an effective counter maneuver. A few MAGAites might pick up a Tesla in the wake, but people who live in deep red rural areas (with no charging infrastructure) are unlikely to get a Y, S or 3, and NO ONE who actually needs a truck for their employment would consider the ridiculous cyber truck to be usable. That thing is for coastal hipsters who sit at a computer all day and go camping a couple times a year….
Hey - I thought same thing! I thought he owed the Sandy Hook parents who prevailed against him more than what he has...I am sure that the attorneys are paying close attention.
Good article. Two thoughts. One, the downfall of Tesla and other "Musk-Run" companies (Musk is not running them any more, they must be on "auto-pilot," as it were) need not be a total wipeout; his current political potency derives from the fact that his chip stack is 100X that of other billionaires; make him again into "just another billionaire," and his unique ability to threaten to primary every R member of Congress who doesn't back Trump on everything goes away. Second, I am reminded of the wisdom of Billy Ray Valentine: "The best way to get back at rich people is by turning them into poor people."
The furor over Musk and the USAID cuts seems to be much ado about...not much.
The projected US federal budget deficit for 2025 is 30.1 trillion. The recent cuts to 80-90% of USAID programs amounts to a saving of 54 billion. This constitutes slightly less than 0.2% of the deficit.
I can't understand the media hype, nor can I imagine Musk getting out of bed for anything less than a 10-20% hike on his bottom line at SpaceX or Tesla, but here he is pratting about on stage in self-congratulatory ecstasy with a chainsaw! It's a little like watching an Olympic high diver splashing about in a wading pool - a good spectacle where everyone gets a little wet, but nothing of any real substance transpires.
Another way of looking a Musk - we all disagree that he should be able to buy so much advertising and we disagree with Citizens United. It was passed in 2010 by the Roberts court - Alito and Thomas voting for it so Thomas could get gifts - right away Leonard Leo arranged that he got a new RV. Now Roberts says that state employees can take bribes - because they are like tips.
Next your lawyer and CPA will bill you with suggested 25% tips.
We also need to reinstate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - do you realize this Trump action made it legal to bribe Musk?
Our Federalist Society should be concerned about the corruption they are permitting - the courts will be ineffective with the rich buying outcomes - like Musk
We can all help the climate and not pad Musk's pockets or spark Republicans to buy Tesla - just buy another electric or hybrid. Almost every brand now how something to offer.
YEAH for the generational turn over. As a 58 year old - I would love to see there be some consideration to age gating at the upper end. I'm not saying that they can't do the job, I'm just saying that if you listen to the FYPod you may realize just how out of touch you are (I have Millennials and thought I was still in the know)
It's not easy nowadays to figure out how to approach fact-gathering i.e., filtering tons of information) or how to frame the story once you have completed the first step. Thank you, Lauren, for excellent analysis and top-notch writing. (And keep the recommendations coming!)
Ah, the irony of it! Musk gets rich(er) on the Blue Sky stock of Tesla with indispensable help from government programs adopted mainly at the urging of "environmentalists" - the unearned gratuity of seven thousand bucks a pop on the purchase of a new Tesla plus four thousand on its sale. Then there's the sale of pollution reduction "credits" to other auto makers.
Much of Musk's Tesla stock is pledged to lenders as security for their financing of Musk's acquisition of Twitter. According to my searches this morning (Thursday, March 13th), Musk owns about 14% of Tesla's outstanding shares, and an estimated 50% of his holdings were pledged as collateral in the deal. (The lenders and the shares they hold are not publicly available.) The other nine of the ten largest shareholders own about 20%. They include Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, and Fidelity. I'd assume some large pension funds, e.g., CalPERS, also hold some.
My proposal is simple. George Soros and other Democrat gazillionaires and others, who, with appropriate hedges, could withstand the possible loss, should short that sucker down to zero, or actually, down far enough to make the banks make a margin call. Maybe Musk could meet the margin call. I'd hope not, leading the banks to dump the stock. In either case, Musk would have to scramble. (How the genius "financial engineers" justified a security arrangement of taking a stock selling at hundreds of times earnings is beyond me. Maybe it involved some complex and equally uncertain after-tax calculation.)
In case anybody is wondering, I wouldn't touch anything connected with Tesla stock with a barge pole, nor am I any sort of financial advisor or professional.
Push to end all government support for Musk. According to the Washington Post, Musk has received $38 Billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies & tax credits.
Elon could save Tesla's stock by moving away from EVs and toward internal combustion engine monster trucks wrapped in confederate flag print. The GOP wouldn't hesitate to buy those up. Sigh.
I’m just curious why there hasn’t been a bevy of shareholder lawsuits against Tesla and Elon? Elon is shirking his duty as CEO and this is having a direct effect on share price! I’d be quite irritated if I was a Tesla shareholder (which I’m not) and would want him back running his business and not pretending he knows anything about government efficiency!
Because Tesla is basically an overinflated meme stock and its value is inherently tied to Musk’s cult of personality/perceived “genius”. If they dump Musk, they lose the diehards, which is pretty much all they have left - I can’t imagine most of the boycotters choosing Tesla after Musk is gone
I doubt we can ever break Musk. But we can take him down a few notches. Most of his paper wealth is in Tesla, and its mostly liberals who buy Teslas. Or used to. Now that there are decent competing electric cars, we can choose those and shun Tesla. Its a one way ride downhill for him.
"But the attempt to fully dislodge him [Musk] . . . " It's not dislodge; it's "disDOGE"!
“Our secret plan to have Trump supporters buy electric cars and save the planet is proceeding as I have foreseen,” former New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski joked.
That is one of the funniest things I have read in a while. Nice to laugh sometimes.
Me, too!
Tesla stock is tanking BECAUSE of Musk’s connections to Trump - I don’t think musk’s press conferences with trump in which trump states he plans to buy a Tesla is an effective counter maneuver. A few MAGAites might pick up a Tesla in the wake, but people who live in deep red rural areas (with no charging infrastructure) are unlikely to get a Y, S or 3, and NO ONE who actually needs a truck for their employment would consider the ridiculous cyber truck to be usable. That thing is for coastal hipsters who sit at a computer all day and go camping a couple times a year….
You mean Glamping.
Excellent writing, Lauren. You're a tremendous addition to the Bulwark.
How can the semiliterate cockroach Alex Jones afford a customized Tesla Cybertruck? I am naive.
I live in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Sen. Markey, who will be 79 in June, is running for another term in '26. This depresses me.
Hey - I thought same thing! I thought he owed the Sandy Hook parents who prevailed against him more than what he has...I am sure that the attorneys are paying close attention.
I'm in Maine, Susan Collins is currently 72 and running for re-election in 2026......totally curious as to how that goes........
Fingers crossed.
The market at work. He's not ENTITLED to our money. I know he's used to it bc the subsidies/ lack of taxes. But we don't have to buy his crap car.
Good article. Two thoughts. One, the downfall of Tesla and other "Musk-Run" companies (Musk is not running them any more, they must be on "auto-pilot," as it were) need not be a total wipeout; his current political potency derives from the fact that his chip stack is 100X that of other billionaires; make him again into "just another billionaire," and his unique ability to threaten to primary every R member of Congress who doesn't back Trump on everything goes away. Second, I am reminded of the wisdom of Billy Ray Valentine: "The best way to get back at rich people is by turning them into poor people."
The furor over Musk and the USAID cuts seems to be much ado about...not much.
The projected US federal budget deficit for 2025 is 30.1 trillion. The recent cuts to 80-90% of USAID programs amounts to a saving of 54 billion. This constitutes slightly less than 0.2% of the deficit.
I can't understand the media hype, nor can I imagine Musk getting out of bed for anything less than a 10-20% hike on his bottom line at SpaceX or Tesla, but here he is pratting about on stage in self-congratulatory ecstasy with a chainsaw! It's a little like watching an Olympic high diver splashing about in a wading pool - a good spectacle where everyone gets a little wet, but nothing of any real substance transpires.
Another way of looking a Musk - we all disagree that he should be able to buy so much advertising and we disagree with Citizens United. It was passed in 2010 by the Roberts court - Alito and Thomas voting for it so Thomas could get gifts - right away Leonard Leo arranged that he got a new RV. Now Roberts says that state employees can take bribes - because they are like tips.
Next your lawyer and CPA will bill you with suggested 25% tips.
We also need to reinstate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - do you realize this Trump action made it legal to bribe Musk?
Our Federalist Society should be concerned about the corruption they are permitting - the courts will be ineffective with the rich buying outcomes - like Musk
We can all help the climate and not pad Musk's pockets or spark Republicans to buy Tesla - just buy another electric or hybrid. Almost every brand now how something to offer.
YEAH for the generational turn over. As a 58 year old - I would love to see there be some consideration to age gating at the upper end. I'm not saying that they can't do the job, I'm just saying that if you listen to the FYPod you may realize just how out of touch you are (I have Millennials and thought I was still in the know)
It's not easy nowadays to figure out how to approach fact-gathering i.e., filtering tons of information) or how to frame the story once you have completed the first step. Thank you, Lauren, for excellent analysis and top-notch writing. (And keep the recommendations coming!)
Ah, the irony of it! Musk gets rich(er) on the Blue Sky stock of Tesla with indispensable help from government programs adopted mainly at the urging of "environmentalists" - the unearned gratuity of seven thousand bucks a pop on the purchase of a new Tesla plus four thousand on its sale. Then there's the sale of pollution reduction "credits" to other auto makers.
Much of Musk's Tesla stock is pledged to lenders as security for their financing of Musk's acquisition of Twitter. According to my searches this morning (Thursday, March 13th), Musk owns about 14% of Tesla's outstanding shares, and an estimated 50% of his holdings were pledged as collateral in the deal. (The lenders and the shares they hold are not publicly available.) The other nine of the ten largest shareholders own about 20%. They include Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, and Fidelity. I'd assume some large pension funds, e.g., CalPERS, also hold some.
My proposal is simple. George Soros and other Democrat gazillionaires and others, who, with appropriate hedges, could withstand the possible loss, should short that sucker down to zero, or actually, down far enough to make the banks make a margin call. Maybe Musk could meet the margin call. I'd hope not, leading the banks to dump the stock. In either case, Musk would have to scramble. (How the genius "financial engineers" justified a security arrangement of taking a stock selling at hundreds of times earnings is beyond me. Maybe it involved some complex and equally uncertain after-tax calculation.)
In case anybody is wondering, I wouldn't touch anything connected with Tesla stock with a barge pole, nor am I any sort of financial advisor or professional.
Push to end all government support for Musk. According to the Washington Post, Musk has received $38 Billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies & tax credits.
Elon could save Tesla's stock by moving away from EVs and toward internal combustion engine monster trucks wrapped in confederate flag print. The GOP wouldn't hesitate to buy those up. Sigh.
I’m just curious why there hasn’t been a bevy of shareholder lawsuits against Tesla and Elon? Elon is shirking his duty as CEO and this is having a direct effect on share price! I’d be quite irritated if I was a Tesla shareholder (which I’m not) and would want him back running his business and not pretending he knows anything about government efficiency!
Because Tesla is basically an overinflated meme stock and its value is inherently tied to Musk’s cult of personality/perceived “genius”. If they dump Musk, they lose the diehards, which is pretty much all they have left - I can’t imagine most of the boycotters choosing Tesla after Musk is gone
The trouble with Musk is that he also own Starlink. Europeans are trying to find an alternative.