It’s been a (self-driving) roller coaster for Tesla ever since inauguration day, with the stock price, investors’ confidence and Wall Street projections rising and falling like Donald Trump’s tariffs as the president binge-watches Fox News and MSNBC, gorges on quarter-pounders and pounds out angry Truth Social posts.
Things have grown so dicey for the electric car manufacturer that Musk had to put down his chainsaw and hurry back to extinguish fires — we mean financial blazes, not the actual vandalism to Tesla vehicles.
After peaking in December 2024, Tesla’s stock declined sharply, dropping to $221.86 by early May 2025 —a 43% decrease over five months, according to AInvest, which says the downturn coincided with a 24% year-over-year drop in Q1 2025 vehicle deliveries and a 40% decline in non-GAAP earnings per share.
A stock selloff has resulted in the share price falling roughly 25% since the start of the year, erasing billions of dollars from Musk’s net worth.
Tesla already is dealing with a slowing market for electric vehicles and heightened competition from Chinese automakers. Even a sales pitch by Trump in the White House driveway and come-ons by Fox News host Sean Hannity and others haven’t turned the tide against one of the world’s most unpopular figures.
(In this case, Musk, not Trump.)
Despite some analysts who believe Tesla stock will make a comeback — and there are those even suggesting a bull run — some employees (who already have sold their stock) don’t have the same perspective.
According to Business Insider, Musk is telling workers in Texas to take a week off:
Tesla told Austin workers on its Model Y and Cybertruck lines to stay home for the week of Memorial Day, three workers told Business Insider.
The break is unusually long, the workers said. Production lines were up and running during the same period last year, they said.
The electric vehicle maker notified employees earlier this week. The workers, who are paid hourly, were told they could either take paid time off or come in for cleaning and training but would not be working on the production line.
The workers said their schedules had been increasingly inconsistent since February. Some said they had been sent home early on multiple occasions.
So, what could have happened between December and May that might have triggered the collapse? Here’s The Guardian’s guess:
Never before has the world’s richest person been deputized by the US president to cull the very agencies that oversee his businesses. Musk’s attempts to radically dismantle government bureaus have won him sprawling influence. His team has embedded its members in key roles across federal agencies, gained access to personal data on millions of Americans and fired tens of thousands of workers. SpaceX, where he is CEO, is now poised to take over potential government contracts worth billions. He has left a trail of chaos while seeding the government with his allies, who will probably help him profit and preserve his newfound power.
Sounds about right.
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