The world’s richest man Elon Musk appeared to be feeling himself on Sunday. Over the weekend he added a red tinge and laser eyes to his profile picture on X, which is considered a sign of being bullish on crypto. Conservatives were excited about reporting saying he planned to spend $45 million a month supporting Donald Trump. Things took a turn for the Tesla CEO on Monday when he clarified that he wasn’t going to spend anything like that and said his Optimus robots won’t be available until 2026. On Tuesday, Tesla’s quarterly report painted a dire picture for the company.
By Wednesday morning, the laser eyes and rid tinge were gone from his Avatar and he was floating the idea of Tesla investing $5 billion into his artificial intelligence startup.
Musk gave his full-throated endorsement of Trump following a failed assassination attempt on the candidate on July 13. Three days later, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk was part of a new Pro-Trump Super PAC and he planned to donate $45 million to the cause of getting Trump re-elected.
The move didn’t sit well with a lot of Tesla fans. The customers buying expensive electric cars tend to be wealthy and planet-conscious. In other words, they’re liberals who aren’t fans of Trump. Early investor analysis of the brand’s image following Musk’s endorsement of Trump didn’t look good.
Tesla reported its quarterly earnings to investors on Tuesday and the results were bad. Tesla was once one of the only electric vehicles on the market, but other manufacturers have gotten into the game and it’s eating into its profits, which are down 45% this quarter. They were down 55% last quarter. Tesla stock took a hit after the report.
Trump’s presidential plans may also ding the automaker. During his speech at the RNC, Trump said he would “end the electric vehicle mandate” should he take office. That could mean a lot of different things, but probably refers to the suspension of electric vehicle tax credits.
“It would be devastating for our competitors, and it would hurt Tesla slightly but long term probably actually helps Tesla would be my guess,” Musk said of Trump’s words in a conference call about Tesla’s earnings on Tuesday.
Trump softened his language a bit during a rally on Saturday saying how he “loves Elon Musk” and that he’s now for them.
As for Musk’s company, Tesla was also planning to build a factory in Mexico, but he says it’s slowing construction to see how the election goes.
“Trump has said that he’ll put heavy tariffs on vehicles produced in Mexico,” Musk said during the Tesla earnings call. “So it doesn’t make sense to invest a lot in Mexico if that is going to be the case. We kind of need to see where things play out politically.”
Musk put a little distance between himself and Trump during an interview with Jordan Peterson that was aired live on X and The Daily Wire on Monday. Peterson pressed Musk about the $45 million donations and the billionaire said he wasn’t giving that much cash and that he doesn’t “prescribe to a cult of personality.”
“I’m not donating $45 million a month to Trump,” he told Peterson. “What I have done is I have created a Super PAC…which I simply call the America PAC.”
Musk says the PAC was not meant to be partisan and that he already believed America was great, he simply wanted to make it greater. In the same interview, he also deadnamed his trans daughter and referred to her as dead. “Killed by the woke mind virus,” he said.
According to FEC filings, the America PAC has taken money from Jimmy John’s founder Jimmy Liautaud, the Winklevoss twins, and former Tesla executive Antonio Gracias. The America PAC has hired people who used to work on Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential bid and already spent $21 million so far.
What Musk’s exact involvement is and how much he plans to give to it is a mystery.
With Tesla, Musk is betting the farm on autonomous driving. There’s no guarantee that the systems will work, but the company’s future appears to be riding on it. Tesla planned to unveil a long-awaited robotaxi at an event in August but that has since been pushed back to October.
