Poor Old Elon: What a Waste

If there’s one thing proven by the steady decline in Tesla’s share price in the wake of Elon Musk’s decision to join the most toxic government America has ever seen, it’s that politics and business don’t go together.

Musk is still the world’s richest individual, and the decline in his personal wealth is relative, but it’s clear that huge numbers of people have decided not to buy a Tesla on the basis of his bromance with Donald Trump.

Nevertheless, it would appear that Elon Musk has decided to move on; for the moment at least, his business empire can look after itself now that he has made the leap into politics and enjoys de facto (nobody elected him) control of the richest and most powerful country in the world, even at the cost of looking like a caricature henchman at Trump’s side.

Sales of Teslas, his only listed company and the one that contributes most to his wealth, are stalling everywhere on the planet. In the United States, while rival EV sales are growing, this is obviously because progressives (his biggest customer base) concerned about the climate emergency are deciding to punish Musk not just for his far-right stance but for the destruction he is wreaking throughout the administration.

The Trump administration has eliminated subsidies for the purchase of EVs and charging networks, given the oil industry carte blanche to extract as much fossil fuel as it likes, and has halted investment in renewables. Meanwhile, Musk continues his rampage, destroying the intellectual capital and good will he has accumulated over the last decade.

Tesla sales are also falling sharply in Europe: in France they have plummeted 63.4%, while in Germany, a country Musk visits frequently and where he has thrown his weight behind the neo-Nazi AfD, they have plunged 59.5%. Even in Sweden and Norway, where Tesla had driven electrification, becoming by far the best-selling brand overall, sales have fallen by 44.3% and 37.9% respectively.

In the world’s largest automobile market, China, sales fell in January by 11.5%, which is more about increased competition than Musk’s involvement in geopolitics, which is of little concern to the vast majority of Chinese.

Another of Musk’s companies, Starlink, also seems to be suffering the consequence of his alignment with a tariff-wielding Trump: the Canadian state of Ontario initially cancelled a $68 million contract with the satellite internet provider. The contract was ratified again when the tariffs were put on hold, but Starlink could be vulnerable if tariff-hit countries decide to strike back.

What’s more, governments signing up to Starlink should remember what happened to Ukraine. Musk can cut the service at will, meaning it can be used to apply political pressure. No government finds the idea of a communications network being directly in the hands of a senior official of a foreign government appealing, particularly if its president is a sociopath.

So while Starlink is busy taking out Super Bowl ads offering internet to Americans, half the country doesn’t find the idea of putting more money into Musk’s pockets appealing. And the other half, which cheers him on, doesn’t care about universal internet access, technology in general, the climate emergency, and was probably never going to buy a Tesla anyway.

By putting himself at the service of Donald Trump, Musk has squandered years of credibility fighting for a cause he played an important role in. He must have known that his business would suffer as a result, although he now knows he can benefit from institutionalized corruption and crony capitalism to award himself SpaceX missions and recover some of that money.

We find ourselves in a latter-day Gilded Age and its forgettable presidents: Elon Musk once looked like he was going to change the world for the better, instead he has turned into just another robber baron. What a waste.

(En español, aquí)

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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