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Final Up to date on: twenty fourth April 2025, 10:39 am
Elon Musk and Donald Trump could have gotten collectively out of a hate for trans individuals, labor unions, and taxes on billionaires, however, as predicted many instances, Musk could remorse throwing his weight behind a multi-bankrupted con man from Queens who was born with a golden spoon in his mouth and by no means earned his billions.
To begin with, there’s nonetheless the matter of EV tax credit probably getting chopped. There’s additionally the truth that Trump has minimize key infrastructure funding for electrical autos. However the largest brick of all via Tesla HQ’s home windows could be Donald Trump’s tariff insurance policies.
On the latter matter, Elon Musk has actually spoken out against Trump’s “tariff czar,” in typical center faculty style. Moreover, Tesla’s overtly referencing the tariff sandstorm Trump is creating whereas warning shareholders in regards to the 12 months to come back. In reality, the third paragraph of Tesla’s Q1 2025 quarterly report was devoted to this.
“Uncertainty in the automotive and energy markets continues to increase as rapidly evolving trade policy adversely impacts the global supply chain and cost structure of Tesla and our peers. This dynamic, along with changing political sentiment, could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near-term. We remain committed to expanding our business model to include delivering autonomous robots across multiple form factors and use cases – powered by our real-world AI expertise – to our customers and for use in our factories, as we navigate these headwinds.”
Let’s break down these sentences briefly.
So, initially, Trump’s inane commerce battle disrupting free commerce, international provide chains, and market costs goes to harm Tesla. Certainly.
Within the second sentence, I’m undecided what they imply by “changing political sentiment.” That looks like one thing executives pressured out as a compromise, or a method of papering over the injury Elon Musk has carried out to the Tesla model. Maybe it’s referring to the worldwide politics being disrupted by Donald Trump, or maybe it’s referring to the injury Elon Musk has prompted to Tesla’s fame and gross sales within the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and doubtless elsewhere. Who is aware of?
You then’ve obtained the final sentence. It appears to me that’s Elon Musk attempting to wave his magic wand and say, It’ll all be alright, although, as a result of robots and AI. Effectively, taking a look at Tesla’s market cap, that has labored out fairly properly for Musk and firm for the previous a number of years. Will it proceed to be sufficient? Will Tesla lastly obtain some breakthroughs that make all of it make sense? Will Tesla gross sales proceed to crater with out a lot precise assist from robots and AI, resulting in a real monetary disaster at Tesla? Will the AI & robots division maintain sucking capital out of Tesla with out a return, and can automobile and battery gross sales be sufficient to assist that within the coming 12 months? Who is aware of?
What we do know is Trump’s tariff battle and tax on the center class could be very prone to slam Tesla gross sales even additional. I’m wondering how lengthy into the Trump presidency it is going to take till Musk and his minions notice they made a grave mistake by supporting Donald Trump to run the USA once more. And this isn’t simply literary leisure. I actually marvel.
The place do you assume Tesla is headed? And the place do you assume this tariff battle goes to guide us?
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