Thursday marked a turning point in relations between U.S. President Donald Trump and his former adviser and major backer, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, with Trump saying he’s “very disappointed” with him.
Shares of Musk’s electric-vehicle maker fell 14% on Thursday, losing about $152.4 billion in market value — the stock’s biggest one-day slide on record.
President Donald Trump told CNN this morning that he is “not even thinking about” billionaire Elon Musk and won’t be speaking to him in the near future.
“I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem,” Trump said.
Asked if he had a call with Musk, he responded: “No. I won’t be speaking to him for a while I guess, but I wish him well.”
On Friday, a senior White House official said that Trump is considering selling or giving away the red Tesla that he purchased earlier this year.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas reiterated on Friday the firm’s $410 price target on Tesla, amid increasing tensions between Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
Jonas said, “while the situation remains fluid, we believe the disagreement will not help Tesla demand but could potentially (temporarily) alienate multiple sides of the political spectrum.”
Commenting on the bigger picture, Morgan Stanley noted that “while emotions are running high, we are not convinced the longer-term vectors that drive the stock’s value have changed here.”
As tensions rose between U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk on Thursday, Wedbush Securities remains bullish on Tesla — despite “major pressure” on the stock.
In a new research note published later on the same day, analyst Dan Ives said investors fear that the tensions between Trump and Musk will “change the regulatory environment for Tesla on the autonomous front over the coming years under the Trump Administration.”
“The quickly deteriorating friendship and now ‘major beef’ between Musk and Trump is jaw dropping and a shock to the market,” Ives added.
While “this feud does not change our bullish view of Tesla and the autonomous view,” the analyst said it “clearly does put a fly in the ointment of the Trump regulatory framework going forward.”
Last week, the analyst had commented on Elon Musk’s involvement in politics, defending that his exit from his U.S. government role was like “music to the ears of Tesla shareholders.”
Earlier on Thursday, Donald Trump was questioned by reporters at the White House regarding Elon Musk’s comments on his “big, beautiful bill.”
The President stated that Tesla’s chief executive — and former government employee, as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — is “upset” due to the EV credit slashes proposed on the bill.
It was approved last month in the U.S. House of Representatives, and is now waiting for the Senate vote. If the vote is positive, the bill will cut EV and clean energy tax breaks by the end of the year.
Currently, customers purchasing electric vehicles benefit from a $7,500 tax deduction, which was introduced in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022.
As Trump said that he was “very disappointed” in Musk and that he knew about the bill “from the beginning,” the Tesla executive commented on X that it was false.
He later added that Trump wouldn’t have won the Presidential election without him, calling him ungrateful.
The feud further escalated with Musk going as far as calling for Trump to be impeached and the President threatening to cut off government contracts with his companies.
“I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,” the President stated on Truth Social.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN on Friday that he “believes in redemption, and I think it will all work out.”
