By Jasmine Ng, Bloomberg
President Donald Trump lashed out at Elon Musk on Tuesday, accusing the Tesla Inc. and SpaceX chief executive officer of benefiting excessively from government electric vehicle subsidies. Tesla shares tumbled.
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“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!,” he added.
This comes after Musk slammed the US Senate’s latest version of Trump’s multi-trillion dollar tax bill, warning that the cuts to EV and other clean energy credits would be “incredibly destructive” to the country. Tesla shares slumped 5.8% in European premarket trading on Tradegate.
Tesla has benefitted from a popular $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicles that Trump’s bill will eliminate. The automaker is set to release second-quarter sales later this week that will likely show a further slump in demand.
“Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate,” Trump said. “It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one.”
–With assistance from Peter Vercoe and Lianting Tu.
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