Leader of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk wears a shirt that says “Tech Support” as he speaks during a cabinet meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
Tesla’s stock started off March the way it left off February: in the red.
In CEO Elon Musk’s first full month as part of Donald Trump’s White House, shares of his electric vehicle company plunged 28%, the steepest drop since December 2022. The stock fell another 3% on Monday, the first trading day in March, pushing the company’s market cap to about $915 billion.
The slide on Monday followed a social media post from Musk over the weekend, suggesting that a “1000% gain for Tesla in 5 years is possible” with “outstanding execution.” And Morgan Stanley named Tesla its top pick in U.S. autos in a note on March 2.
In the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report in late January, Tesla said automotive revenue sank 8% from a year earlier and reported a 23% drop in operating income. The company cited reduced average selling prices across its Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X lines as a major reason for the decline.
Tesla also stands to take a hit from new tariffs being implemented by President Trump that apply to goods and materials coming from Canada and Mexico, where some of its key suppliers are based.
But the recent stock price decline is not just about what’s been happening at Tesla. Musk’s politics, work and antics outside of Tesla are apparently taking a toll.
Musk is currently leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is making sweeping cuts to the U.S. federal workforce, slashing federal spending and seeking to eliminate regulations and consolidate agencies, all while pursuing new government contracts for his companies.
In addition to Tesla, Musk runs SpaceX and the artificial intelligence startup xAI. He also owns social media company X.
Though he has preached transparency at DOGE, Musk has kept many details about the group’s work and plans hidden from public view, all while attaining unprecedented access to federal government computer systems and sensitive data without congressional approval.
On X, where his profile boasts 219.2 million followers, Musk has also become more involved in international affairs, for example, promoting Germany’s far right anti-immigrant party AfD, and drawing accusations of election interference by European leaders.
The Tesla CEO has also used X to spread falsehoods about how Ukrainians view their President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and to baselessly accuse him of seeking a “forever war” with Russia — comments that resemble Kremlin talking points.
In response, anti-Musk and anti-Tesla sentiment has erupted across Europe and the U.S.
An ad from London recently went viral after appearing at a bus kiosk, Euronews reported. The ad gives a Tesla car the nickname of “Swasticar,” and features an image of Musk making a gesture identified by historians as a Nazi salute. Dozens of Tesla electric vehicles were also reportedly burned in a suspected arson attack in France on Sunday night.
Tesla new vehicle registrations have been on a steep decline in Europe, falling in France and Scandinavia in the first two months of 2025, and plummeting in Germany by around 60% in January from a year earlier.
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest at electric carmaker Tesla’s showroom in Seattle, Washington, U.S., Feb. 15, 2025.
David Ryder | Reuters
In the U.S., a series of vandalism incidents began on Jan. 29, at a Tesla facility in Loveland, Colorado. Over the weekend in New York, nine people were reportedly arrested and subsequently released after a demonstration outside of a Tesla dealership.
Cybertruck owners in the U.S. have complained of negative reactions to their angular, steel Tesla trucks ranging from rude gestures to more intimidating bullying or harassment.
And a movement that calls itself the Tesla Takedown is now encouraging people to divest from Tesla, and to refrain from buying cars or any other products or services from Elon Musk’s company.
The movement has gained celebrity support. Japanese American actor and author George Takei, most famous for his portrayal of Hikaru Sulu on “Star Trek,” on Sunday encouraged his followers on social network Bluesky to consider joining the Tesla Takedown movement.
When Musk does focus his attention back on Tesla, rather than the White House, he plays up the company’s future in self-driving cars and humanoid robotics.
However, Tesla currently trails some rivals in China and the U.S. in self-driving technology, as a number of companies are already operating commercial robotaxi services while Tesla’s CyberCab is not yet in production.
Several Chinese automakers have also begun to offer partially automated driving systems that compare to Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self Driving Supervised options, either for free or at a much lower cost than Tesla’s.
On the company’s latest earnings call, Musk told investors that Tesla should “be launching unsupervised Full Self-Driving as a paid service” in Austin, Texas, in June. He said driverless testing would follow in other U.S. cities shortly after that.
Alphabet-owned Waymo is way ahead, announcing recently that it’s providing 200,000 trips each week across San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
Tesla and Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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