Elon Musk Leaves Trump Team: What It Means for Tesla & SpaceX
So, let's talk about Elon Musk stepping away from the Trump team. It seems like investors are really hoping he'll put his focus back on his huge companies. You know, like Tesla. Because, honestly, Tesla's sales have been kinda rough lately. Plus, SpaceX's latest rocket launch didn't go as well as folks hoped.
Musk basically said 'peace out' to his White House gig recently. This seemed to cheer up Tesla investors a bit. The stock had been dropping this year, partly 'cause people weren't happy about him supporting Trump and right-wing groups in Europe. He was also in charge of this government thing trying to cut spending, which caused some fuss.
Now he's back to his empire, and he's got challenges, sure, but also some cool stuff going on. Tesla's sales dropping is annoying for investors, but SpaceX and Starlink are totally killing it in their areas. They're pretty much the go-to for sending stuff into space and getting satellite internet. Other countries have been getting onboard with Starlink too. Musk's buddy-buddy thing with Trump seemed to help with getting the OK from regulators on that.
But that relationship? Yeah, it got some attention. Just before he bounced from Washington, Musk was ragging on the new tax bill coming up. He also said he'd spend less on politics after, like, dropping nearly $300 million on Trump's campaign and other Republican guys last year. Tesla shares haven't really moved much today, but they've lost about 25% of their value since mid-December. The stock actually shot up big time at first because of his Trump connection and people thinking the robotaxis would get approved super fast.
Things went the other way when sales tanked and people started protesting against Musk getting cozy with far-right politicians and him being part of kicking out federal workers. Experts say Tesla needs to fix bigger problems to boost sales, especially 'cause more people are buying EVs from other companies, particularly in China where things are growing fast. Seth Goldstein, an analyst at Morningstar, said Musk leaving the government efficiency group is good for how people feel about the market, but he doesn't see it changing much for Tesla. He thinks Tesla's lower deliveries show that their current cars are everywhere now and facing tough fights in the US, China, and Europe.
Tesla's stock is still way more expensive than other big tech companies like Nvidia or Microsoft, based on what they're earning, you know? And way more than regular car companies. But some analysts, like Dan Ives from Wedbush, have been saying for a while that Tesla's future is all about self-driving cars. Ives even said today that could be worth like, a trillion dollars for Tesla just on its own. Tesla didn't say anything right away when asked about this.
Speaking of the Trump connection, Musk's companies did pretty well from it. Reuters reported recently that Musk's team in the government was using his AI chatbot, Grok, in the government to look at data. People who know about this told Reuters that it could give Musk access to important private government info about contracts, which could give him an edge over other AI companies. The White House said today that Trump's cabinet will keep working with the government efficiency group folks in different agencies, even though at least one person from Musk's team is leaving.
Steve Davis, who's close to Musk and helped run things day-to-day for that group, has stepped down from his leadership role, according to someone who knows what's going on. And that SpaceX launch this week? It failed faster than they thought. It blew up over the Indian Ocean and didn't hit some of its main testing goals. This puts the brakes on Musk's plan to get that rocket ready super fast, which is a big deal for the US space program.
Federal regulators gave SpaceX the OK for this flight attempt just four days ago. They had to look into a problem that kept the Starship on the ground for almost two months. SpaceX has its own team running things, led by Gwynne Shotwell, but after this last launch, Musk said he plans to spend more time on the company. The Starship rocket still has a long way to go before it can take people to the moon or Mars. I mean, who knows when that will happen, right?
Thomas Martin, who manages money for a Tesla investor company, said Musk isn't officially in the government anymore, but he still has connections. So, that might slightly lessen his influence, but Martin doesn't think it will really change things with regulations anyway. Musk has been kinda quiet about a bill in Congress targeting electric vehicles, but late yesterday, Tesla Energy actually criticized the Republican idea to end energy tax credits. They posted on their X account saying that suddenly ending those credits would hurt America's energy independence and how reliable our power grid is.
The Republican tax plan could cut tax breaks for buying or leasing electric cars, get rid of credits for making batteries, and reduce incentives for clean energy like solar. Tesla's robotaxi launch next month is super important for Musk's plan to shift from making affordable electric cars to focusing on self-driving cars and their Optimus robots that look like people. Soon after news of him leaving Washington, Musk said Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars in Austin, Texas. He said they plan to deliver the first ones to customers in June. Pretty cool, huh?
