On Monday, Elon Musks X feed offered the usual mix of paranoid politics, attacks on Democrats and government agencies, and content from accounts affiliated with President Donald Trump (who still prefers his own web platform, Truth Social). But mixed in were a number of posts about Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer that still counts him as CEO despite his seemingly full-time commitment to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a task force firing thousands of government workers as it torches the administrative state.
Musks increased advertising might be thanks to Teslas wobbly performance on Wall Street. The stock finally dropped into free-fall on Monday, plunging more than 15 percent to mark one of the companys worst trading days since it went public in 2010. The tumble erased the last vestiges of the rally Tesla enjoyed after Trumps election victory in November, when investors clearly felt that a company run by the president-elects largest Super PAC donor was a smart bet. It has lost more than 50 percent of its value the equivalent of some $800 billion since cresting in mid-December.
A number of factors contributed to this reversal, including declines across the market and hints of a possible recession. Yet the Tesla brand has also become uniquely toxic since Musk swept into Washington, gave what was widely recognized as a Nazi salute at an inauguration event, and moved to eliminate entire federal offices at a stroke, all while continuing to spew far-right misinformation on X. Last month, the mounting backlash cohered into a formal protest campaign, Tesla Takedown, that is organizing regular demonstrations at Tesla centers around the world while encouraging a boycott and, of course, calling for the automakers investors to sell their shares.
Hoffman pushed back against the unfounded accusation on Monday on X. Just one more of Elons false claims about me: I never funded anyone for Tesla protests, wrote the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, who was an executive with Musk at PayPal in the early 2000s. I dont condone violence. But its clear Americans are angry at him its easier to explain away their anger, than to accept that actions have consequences. Musk replied, Describe your favorite island vacation, baselessly implying that Hoffman had visited the Caribbean private island of the late sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. While Hoffman was acquainted with Epstein, as many rich and powerful individuals were, there is nothing to suggest he was a client of Epsteins trafficking ring. He revealed in an interview last year that he had to hire security staff because of Musks repeated insinuations to the contrary. (Hunt-Hendrix did not return a request for comment on Musks ActBlue accusation, while Soros, a frequent target for Musk and far-right instigators, did not comment publicly on it.)
Elsewhere, Musk amplified a post from a Tesla-promoting account outlining the historical links that other automakers, including Mercedes and Volkswagen, have to the Nazi regime. Responding to a post about how actress Alyssa Milano had traded in her Tesla for an electric vehicle from VW, Musk wrote, Alyssa Milano loves Hitler. He also replied to a self-identified nationalist users groundless claim that groups attacking Tesla property are inspired by Luigi Mangione, the alleged murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Wow, he wrote.
Where it came to positive content about Tesla, it appears that no X account is too obscure for Musk to boost. All the protests and stories of vandalism to @Tesla service centers and harassment of Tesla owners is insane! wrote a blue-check user with fewer than 5,000 followers on Sunday. Lets all stand together and push back against the aggression! An accompanying image showed the Tesla logo and the slogan Stand With Tesla. Musk reposted it to his massive audience, but the sentiment didnt prevent him from losing $23 billion the following day.
