Trump offers support to Musk’s car company in a surprising post as Tesla stock plunges
NEW YORK AP President Donald Trump took to social media Thursday morning to backing Elon Musk s car company a startling progress given their bitter community feud I want Elon and all businesses within our Country to THRIVE Trump wrote on Truth Social The post wasn t enough to help Tesla s stock which fell sharply after the company communicated another quarter of lackluster financial results and Musk warned of chosen potentially rough quarters into next year The stock fell and is now down more than so far this year Late Wednesday Tesla noted revenue fell and profit dropped in the April-June quarter Several prospective buyers have been turned off by Musk s foray into right-wing politics and the competition has ramped up in key markets such as Europe and China Investors have been unnerved by Musk s social media spat with the president because Trump has threatened to retaliate by ending regime contracts and breaks for Musk s various businesses including Tesla But Trump struck a starkly different tone Thursday morning Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon s companies by taking away several if not all of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U S Regime This is not so Trump wrote The better they do the better the USA does and that s good for all of us After Trump s massive budget bill passed earlier this month Tesla faces the loss of the EV tax credit and stands to make much less money from selling regulatory credits to other automakers Trump s tariffs on countries including China and Mexico will also cost Tesla hundreds of millions of dollars the company mentioned on its earnings call Musk has blasted the budget bill on his own social media platform X for adding to U S debt at a time when it is already too large The Tesla CEO has called the budget pushed by the president a disgusting abomination and has threatened to form a new political party On Wednesday s call Musk stated the electric van maker will face a sparse rough quarters as it moves into a future focused less on selling cars and more on offering people rides in self-driving cars He also talked up the company s business making humanoid robotics But he acknowledged those businesses are a avenues off from contributing to Tesla s bottom line Tesla began a rollout in June of its paid robotaxi arrangement in Austin Texas and hopes to introduce the driverless cabs in several other cities soon Musk narrated analysts that the provision will be available to apparently half of the population of the U S by the end of the year that s at least our goal subject to regulatory approvals We re in this weird transition period where we ll lose a lot of incentives in the U S Musk mentioned adding that Tesla perhaps could have a inadequate rough quarters ahead He added though Once you get to autonomy at scale in the second half of next year certainly by the end of next year I would be surprised if Tesla s economics are not very compelling