It cannot be understated how much of an anomaly Elon Musk’s foray into politics has been.
Most people in his position—one of the world’s richest people with multiple publicly facing companies—keep their politics to themselves.
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Of course, billionaires participate in politics, but their participation is usually behind the scenes. Not so for Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the executive chairman and CTO of Twitter (now called X).
He has very publicly and full-throatedly backed President Donald Trump and poured hundreds of millions into election campaigns.
But he doesn’t confine his political maneuvering to the U.S. He often opines about far-right German politics, praising the AfD—which advocates for white German nationalism and against multiculturalism—and calling them “the best hope for Germany.”
He doesn’t stop there.
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He has also commented on British politics, Italian politics, Georgian politics, South African politics, etc.
His political ambitions have landed him an unofficial cabinet position in the Trump Administration as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency.
They’ve also landed him in a ton of hot water.
According to Bloomberg, Elon Musk is still, by far, the world’s richest person, with a total net wealth of $302 billion. However, since the start of the year, he has lost $130 billion due to falling Tesla shares.
To put that in perspective, he’s lost more money this year than Steve Ballmer, who is number 9 on the list with a net worth of $127 billion, is worth.
The origin of Tesla’s declining sales can be traced directly to the public’s souring sentiment toward Elon Musk.
Elon Musk doesn’t look as exuberant as he has in the past while campaigning.
Elon Musk wants Trump to stop the bleeding
Musk suffered his biggest political repudiation to date last week when voters in Wisconsin voted against his candidate for state Supreme Court.
Elon tried everything. He stumped in the state and even gave millions of dollars away to entice voters for his pick.
They overwhelmingly rejected the South African carpet bagger despite his insistence that the fate of Western civilization was at stake in the election.
Since then, Musk has been relatively quiet on politics—until this weekend, when he got into a public spat with Trump advisor Peter Navarro.
Wow. Elon is attacking Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro on the tariffs.
Musk lost $18 billion on Tesla stock alone this week. pic.twitter.com/jWxkapIPLG
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) April 5, 2025
Musk concluded that people should ignore Navarro’s comments because he “ain’t built s–t.”
This attack came after a somber Musk – a stark departure from the exuberant, childlike energy he displays on the political stage – was seen on video saying that he advised the President against tariffs.
“I hope it is agreed that both Europe and the United States should move, ideally, in my view, to a zero tariff situation,” Musk stated.
But Trump, of course, shows no plans to pull back tariffs, and Tesla, along with the rest of the market, will continue to suffer as a result.
Tesla shares were down 4.5% in early afternoon trading on Monday, doing much worse than the wider market, which was down less than 2% on the day.
Peter Navarro claps back at Elon Musk
The Harvard-educated Navarro, reportedly Trump’s top trade adviser, responded to Musk on CNBC, saying there was no rift in the administration and that he would probably see Musk in the Oval Office on Monday.
After giving a rote compliment to Elon Musk’s team at DOGE, Navarro took an unmistakable shot at Musk, calling him a car assembler, not a car manufacturer.
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“If you go to his Texas plant a good part of the engines that he gets, which in the EV case are the batteries, come from Japan and come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan…” Navarro said.
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These comments came after Navarro went on Fox News on Sunday and told Musk to literally stay in his lane and stick to DOGE.
“Elon, when he is in his DOGE lane, is great… Elon sells cars, and he is in Texas assembling cars that have big parts parts from Mexico, China. The batteries come from Japan or China… and he is simply protecting his own interests, as any businessperson will do. We’re [the Trump Administration] more concerned about Detroit building Cadillacs with American engines.
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