Tesla reported on Thursday that 2024 noticed the Austin, Texas-based automotive firm’s first annual decline in gross sales in no less than 12 years. The decline coincided with the corporate’s CEO, Elon Musk, endorsing and funding Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign and turning into a serious participant inside the Republican Social gathering.
Tesla mentioned that in 2024 it delivered 1.79 million automobiles, which was 1.1% under the 1.81 million automobiles the corporate offered in 2023. Back in 2022, Tesla confidently predicted that the corporate would develop 50% every year for the following few years. That didn’t occur as Musk went full MAGA.
Earlier than 2024, Musk had proven some signs of conservatism. But his extremism ramped up considerably as the presidential election ramped up and he attacked the so-called “woke thoughts virus,” blaming leftist concepts for his youngster’s gender transition.
Following his buy of Twitter and rebranding the social media platform as “X,” Musk reinstated Trump’s account, which had been deactivated by the earlier administration after the sore loser used it to instigate the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. Musk also reactivated the account of right-wing conspiracy theorist and Trump megafan Alex Jones.
In October, Musk made his partisanship official by endorsing Trump and showing with him at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“President Trump should win to protect the Structure. He should win to protect democracy in America,” Musk said, after wildly jumping around on stage.
Musk bankrolled a super PAC supporting Trump’s marketing campaign and spent no less than $250 million to assist his Republican ally win the election—along with permitting pro-Trump election misinformation to circulate widely on his social media community.
Following his election win, Trump named Musk as co-chair of the Division of Authorities Effectivity, which isn’t a authorities company however an outdoor watchdog group pushing to cut government spending by $2 trillion.
At the same time as Musk was brazenly embracing the Republican Social gathering and its conservative agenda, polling confirmed Democrats—who’ve historically supported clear power merchandise like Tesla’s electrical automobiles—turning away from the corporate. An evaluation from the agency CivicScience launched in July found that Tesla’s favorability dropped to 16% amongst Democrats, when it had been at 39% in January 2024.
“He utterly alienated most of his shopping for base,” investor Mark Spiegel advised Yahoo! Finance when the survey was launched.
After Trump gained, many X customers—together with journalists, who’ve been the lifeblood of the location—began leaving the platform in droves.
Trump has already hinted at making coverage strikes pleasant to Musk, along with his transition crew saying that he favors adopting a suggestion that may scrap federal crash-reporting necessities for self-driving automobiles (from firms like Tesla). However the fledgling bromance has not been easy.
There have been grumblings from Trump allies that Musk is overstepping his position and acting as a co-president with Trump. The South African immigrant was additionally not too long ago embroiled in a very public fight with anti-immigrant Trump supporters over his place in favor of H-1B visas for tech staff.
Musk’s chosen candidate will quickly be president and the multibillionaire clearly has Trump’s ear. However Tesla’s rising issues—and rising fractures inside the MAGA coalition—may very well be an early warning signal for the richest man in the world.
