Tesla CEO Elon Musk just can’t step away from politics—and it is costing his company millions.
The electric vehicle manufacturer’s second quarter of 2025 was dire, just like its first. It revealed on Wednesday that it delivered 384,122 vehicles between March and June, down approximately 13 percent from the 443,956 it delivered at the same time last year.
Tesla’s first quarter was its worst of any quarter since 2022. The most recent period saw a slight improvement, but it was still well below analysts’ projections and Tesla’s own stated goals for the year.
Liz Hoffman, business and finance editor at Semafor, told CNBC on Wednesday that Tesla’s slumping sales may worsen even further now that Musk, 54, has become a toxic figure among MAGA supporters, Democrats, and especially Europeans.
Musk once lent Tesla additional prestige even as legacy car manufacturers narrowed the gap by producing electric vehicles of their own, Hoffman explained. Now, Musk’s headfirst dive into MAGA, just to part with the coalition a year later, is “really bad for Tesla.”
“Musk had lost Democrats, you know, some time ago, certainly on the way in, but there was a sense that he might be able to actually bring over some Republicans, kind of buying Teslas out of solidarity,” she said. “And importantly, for the EV industry, you know, grow that tent, grow the politics of people who might be interested in electric vehicles. That has not happened.”
Musk’s public meltdown on June 5, in which he called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump and claimed he was named in the secretive “Epstein Files,” occurred after the quarter was 70 percent complete.
Trump said Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, was upset that electric vehicle credits were being stripped as part of his “Big Beautiful Bill.” Losing those credits will likely hurt Tesla’s sales, but Musk has insisted that his anger stems from the fact that the megabill will increase the national debt.
Musk reignited his attacks on Trump and top MAGA figures, like Steve Bannon, this week. He has even pondered whether he should use his $397 billion net worth, as calculated by Fortune, to launch a new fiscal hawk political party of his own.
The South African native, who is ineligible to run for president himself, has recently aligned himself with the more libertarian wing of the Republican Party, including Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul, both of whom are from Kentucky.
Hoffman reported Tuesday that Republicans are 11 percent less likely to buy a Tesla today than they were in April. France24 reported last week that new Tesla sales slumped by 45.2% in the first five months of 2025 compared to the same period last year.
Musk has shown little public concern for Tesla’s sales slump. He insists its future lies in building vehicles that operate autonomously and function as driverless taxis. Tesla investors have not always been so level-headed about its struggles, as its stock price has declined 20 percent since Jan. 1.
“This is bad for Tesla,” Hoffman told CNBC. “I mean, the thing about Tesla is, for a while, it sort of had a monopoly on the product. It built these really beautiful, really great category-defining cars. It turns out it’s not really rocket science.”
She added, “Elon Musk kind of single-handedly kept Tesla afloat by bringing in investors, by bringing in talent. It was sort of a force of personality at that company, and now he’s become, frankly, toxic to people on both sides of the aisle. I think they’ve got real problems.”
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