Trump Turns White House Into Tesla Lot to Boost Struggling Stock
Tesla stock took a beating on Monday, plummeting more than 15 percent in its worst single-day performance in years, a sell-off precipitated by both a market downturn and a rising tide of resentment over CEO Elon Musk‘s gleeful destruction of federal government agencies. But Donald Trump is looking out for his highest-spending megadonor, and after Musk’s net worth dropped $23 billion in a matter of hours, the president took aim at the Tesla Takedown protest movement that has brought tens of thousands of people out to picket his electric vehicle dealerships in recent weeks.
“Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for,” Trump fumed on his social media platform late Monday evening. “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,” he added.
In a display of textbook corruption that would have seemed outrageous during any administration in living memory but feels like business as usual with Trump, the president on Tuesday had several Tesla models lined up in the White House driveway for a photo-op, including the steel-paneled Cybertruck. He and Musk took turns hyping up the brand, with Trump even referring to a printout of a Tesla sales pitch, complete with pricing. At one point he sat in the driver’s seat of a red Model S and marveled at its dashboard screen. “This is a different panel than I’ve ever — everything’s computer!” he said. Speaking to reporters, he claimed that Tesla is “as good as it gets” among automakers, and that Musk “has been treated very unfairly” by citizens voicing their opposition to his power as an unelected bureaucrat.
Trump ultimately said he would write a check for the Model S, which starts at $79,990, but noted that as president he’s not permitted to drive and hasn’t in many years. Instead, he suggested that he would keep the new Tesla on the property for staff to use. “I’m not allowed to use it, can you believe it?” he remarked. In between answering questions about the Russia-Ukraine war and the administration’s attempts to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and legal U.S. resident, Trump poured on the praise for Musk, saying: “We have to celebrate somebody that has the courage to do this. He could’ve said, ‘I’m not doing anything, I’m not going to get involved, let the country go to hell.’ He didn’t want to do that.” This comment seemed to refer both to Musk using about a quarter of a billion dollars to help reelect the president and his role as de facto head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose slapdash cuts to administrative institutions have left thousands jobless and unleashed popular contempt for him and his companies.
That disdain has been escalating, in no small part because of Musk’s extremist far-right ideology. While Tesla Takedown is a peaceful movement, Tesla cars, chargers, and properties around the world have become targets for petty vandalism, as well as alleged arsons and gunfire. Asked whether he would label individuals who carry out such attacks “domestic terrorists,” Trump replied: “I will do that. I’ll do it. I going to stop them. We catch anybody doing it — because they’re harming a great American company.” It’s not clear whether the administration has taken steps to enforce this classification of such crimes, nor how it could.
Musk used the event to made an announcement that, like the stunt of turning the White House driveway into a Tesla lot, seemed designed to juice Tesla stock. “As a function of the great policies of President Trump and his administration, and as an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to double vehicle output in the United States within the next two years,” he vowed. Musk has a long history of failing to deliver on splashy promises and milestone deadlines even as he benefits from media coverage of them.
Tesla shares saw a modest bump on Tuesday, ticking up slightly less than four percent by the close of trading to recover a fraction of Monday’s losses. The effects of the stock rally that followed Trump’s election victory have been completely wiped out since he and Musk came to power.
Nevertheless, Trump and Musk appear to remain committed to an alliance as head of state and tech oligarch. On the subject of a potential “end date” for Musk’s involvement in government, Trump kept it vague: “I think I’ll know when it’s time,” he said. “I’ll stay as long as it’s useful and productive,” Musk added. And, presumably, as long as he has the use of the White House for marketing stunts.