US President Donald Trump has said on Thursday that he does not want to “destroy” Elon Musk’s companies, after Tesla‘s CEO warned investors that the company “probably could have a few rough quarters” ahead due to US incentives expiring soon.
“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the US Government,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This is not so!”
The US President said he wants “Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before!”
“The better they do, the better the USA does, and that’s good for all of us,” Trump added, saying that the country is “setting records every day, and I want to keep it that way!”
Elon Musk has previously argued that all consumer tax credits should be eliminated — not only those for electric vehicles or clean energy, but also the fossil fuel subsidies that currently benefit oil and gas companies.
However, in late May, he raised concerns with Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” since it proposed to eliminate tax credits for EVs and solar energy, while preserving subsidies for fossil fuels.
The Senate approved an adjusted bill that will end the $7,500 EV tax credit on September 30, while energy consumer credits are set to be eliminated by the end of 2025.
“Well, we’re in this weird transition period where we will lose a lot of incentives in the US,” Musk said on Wednesday’s earnings call, following the report of Tesla’s second quarter financial results.
“Does that mean we could have a few rough quarters? Yeah. We probably could have a few rough quarters. I’m not saying that we will, but we could,” the CEO stated.
Chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja also said on the call that the production ramp-up of the long-anticipated affordable EV model will proceed “slower than initially expected” as the company focuses on delivering as many cars as possible in the US before the EV credits expire.
Taneja added that the company has “started seeing the impact of tariffs” and is doing their best to manage it, despite “an unpredictable environment on the tariff front.”
“The cost of tariffs increased around $300 million with approximately two-thirds of that impact in automotive,” the CFO noted, warning that “given the latency in manufacturing and sales, the full impacts will come through in the following quarters.”
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s relationship remains strained since Tesla‘s CEO publicly attacked the President’s new bill, a few days after the end of his term as a Special Government Employee.
Tensions resurfaced earlier this month, when Musk announced he was forming a political party in the US, leading Tesla shares to drop and investors to show concerns over the implication of Musk’s political involvement.
By then, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was “saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks.”
As of the time of writing, Tesla shares are trading -8.7% lower at $303.88 on Thursday’s market session.
