(AFP) – President Donald Trump responded Tuesday to plummeting Tesla share prices by briefly turning the White House into a showroom, announcing he was buying one of the electric cars manufactured by close advisor Elon Musk, and threatening anti-Tesla protesters with “hell.”
The unprecedented product endorsement by a sitting president for a company founded by his top donor comes after Tesla shares cratered amid market fears spurred by Trump’s tariffs and backlash to Musk’s controversial role in slashing the US government. “I said, ‘you know, Elon, I don’t like what’s happening to you, and Tesla’s a great company,'” Trump said to reporters Tuesday while standing alongside Musk in front of a red Tesla sedan on the south portico of the White House. “He has never asked me for a thing, and he’s built this great company, and he shouldn’t be penalized because he’s a patriot,” Trump continued.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has empowered Musk to slash federal government spending and headcounts as leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But DOGE’s high-profile cost-cutting campaign has faced increasing resistance, including protests, court rulings, and some pressure from lawmakers. The turmoil has also tarnished the Tesla brand, with sales plummeting in Europe, share prices tumbling, and multiple reports of cars being vandalized. Unhappy Tesla owners have even slapped bumper stickers on their vehicles claiming they had purchased them “before Elon went crazy.”
Trump warned of unspecified crackdowns on protesters. Asked by a reporter if they should be “labeled domestic terrorists,” Trump said, “I’ll do it.” “You do it to Tesla and you do it to any company, we’re going to catch you and you’re going to go through hell,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump had posted on his Truth Social platform his intent to buy a Tesla in support of Musk, promoting the vehicles to his followers. “To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!,” Trump wrote. “I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American,” his post continued. Musk, the world’s richest person, responded on his X platform, thanking the president.
While Musk enjoys Trump’s confidence, polling shows the tech billionaire is deeply unpopular among ordinary Americans, and his cuts to government budgets have sparked angry confrontations between Republicans and their constituents at town halls.
– Tesla shares recover –
Tesla share prices rallied in part Tuesday after closing more than 15 percent down on Monday, as uncertainty over Trump’s import tariffs and threats roil US financial markets. Tesla has also seen its sales drop across Europe in recent weeks following Musk’s controversial support for far-right groups, including Germany’s AfD during the country’s recent election campaign. Tesla sales in Germany — Europe’s biggest auto market — plunged more than 76 percent year-on-year in February, official data showed. Overall sales in the European Union almost halved, on year, in January.
In early March, a dozen Teslas were torched at a dealership in France in what authorities treated as an arson attack, and the firm’s facilities have also been vandalized in the United States. Tesla has lost more than one-third of its market value since mid-December as Musk deepens his association with Trump. Meanwhile, Musk said his X platform was hit Monday by a major cyberattack, raising questions as to whether the politically divisive billionaire is being targeted or if his decision to gut staff at what was once Twitter is haunting the social network.
– Jeremy CHILDS
© 2024 AFP
