Elon Musk: Tesla Stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) Hit by DOGE Backlash
There have been a lot of potential causes for electric vehicle giant Tesla’s (TSLA) decline in recent weeks. A fundamentally shifting electric vehicle market and an overall economic decline are two of the biggest. But politics is playing a part, and Elon Musk is coming out to say that it is backlash for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that is catching up with Tesla’s stock price. Whatever it is, the damage is being done, as Tesla shares dropped nearly 4% in Monday afternoon’s trading.
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Basically, Musk noted during a town hall event out in Wisconsin, where he showed up in full Cheesehead regalia, people opposed to the DOGE plan—which involves massive taxpayer savings via the mass excision of government programs and the people who serve them—are trying to put pressure on Musk directly by selling off Tesla stock.
With Tesla stock cut “roughly in half,” Musk noted, this did indeed represent “a big deal,” as he also put it. But Musk notes that a drop like that seen by Tesla in recent days could represent a serious buying opportunity as well, despite the fact that Tesla sales have been in open decline for months as well. Deliveries were down in 2024, and early 2025 is not shaping up to be much better.
A Growing Call to Ditch Musk
Meanwhile, other reports suggest that the problem is less about DOGE and more about Musk himself. In fact, many of the same things we heard about Tesla back when it bought Twitter are starting to come back around: experts are complaining about Musk’s “lack of focus” and declining innovation.
But more than that, there is a growing politicization in consumerism, in which political issues, and political statements, are directly impacting consumer habits. We have seen as much repeatedly: remember the Dylan Mulvaney debacle from Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), and what that did to sales of Bud Light? Remember, much more recently, the hits taken over perceived “woke” in Disney’s (DIS) release of Snow White? Star Rachel Zegler showing up in an empty theater to watch her own movie was not exactly a bell-ringer for quality. Could Tesla be facing the same in reverse?
Is Tesla a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 14 Buys, 11 Holds, and 12 Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 45.22% rally in its share price over the past year, the average TSLA price target of $325.66 per share implies 27.82% downside risk.
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