What is Elon Musk trying to do?
As the founder of Tesla and SpaceX pursues his quixotic effort to launch a new political party – the America Party – you have to wonder – does Musk really care about our government debt or is he very, very angry that President Donald Trump’s big, beautiful bill eliminated tax credits for Teslas and other electric vehicles? After all, ditching the tax breaks for EV helps cut spending. Musk can’t have it both ways.
After donating hundreds of millions of dollars to help elect Trump, being celebrated as the president’s right-hand man and spearheading the controversial effort to help cut government fraud and waste, Musk is likely irate – understandably– that he is not getting preferential treatment from the White House. Trump’s cavalier disregard of Musk’s concerns must have come as a hurtful shock.
As a result, Musk is lashing out – as he has done before – by insinuating that Trump had dealings with Jeffrey Epstein, for instance – determined to undermine the president and his agenda. Musk has given a lot to this administration. Tesla came under ruthless attack because Musk volunteered to guide DOGE; dealerships were firebombed and cars vandalized. Worse, customers walked away.
But launching a new political party is an especially risky way to go. Tesla’s stock sold off sharply on the news, ending up 40% off its 52-week high. The car company’s shareholders have already signaled they want CEO Musk to spend less time on politics and more on reviving Tesla’s mojo. While Musk has indicated that Tesla’s robotaxis are the wave of the future, and they may well be, the company today is not thriving.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Tesla is struggling in China, its second-largest market, losing market share to more advanced and cheaper EVs. In May, sales were down 30% from the year earlier, even as the sector overall grew 28%. In Europe, Tesla is suffering the same Trump-related reputational issues as here in the U.S. It is not a good time for Musk to become distracted.
It is also not a good idea for Trump to further inflame his former sidekick, as he recently did by calling Musk’s venture ‘ridiculous.’ Musk’s strategy for how he can gain significant political power (and sabotage Republicans) is clever and could damage Republicans. As he posted on X: ‘One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts. Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.’
The SpaceX owner explained in yet another post, ‘The way we’re going to crack the uniparty system is by using a variant of how Epaminondas shattered the myth of Spartan invincibility at Leuctra: Extremely concentrated force at a precise location on the battlefield.’
