Dado Ruvic/REUTERS
Tesla CEO Elon Musk formally launched his new political organization over the weekend — the “America Party” — and on Monday morning the markets reacted.
Tesla shares fell nearly 7% and shed roughly $21 per share as of market closing at 4 p.m. ET.
The launching of his political party was just another move in Musk’s very public feud with President Donald Trump, whom the SpaceX CEO donated at least $277 million to support during the 2024 presidential campaign.
As a result, the world’s richest man’s net worth is $15 billion less than it was on Sunday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, though he still leads in wealth.
The sell-off came on a dampened day for markets due to the prospect of more tariffs and deepened an already brutal stretch for Tesla investors. Tesla stocks are down 31% since Trump’s inauguration in January, while the S&P 500 gained around 4% over the same period.
Tesla has also posted back-to-back quarterly declines in vehicle deliveries in 2025, marking the EV maker’s worst performance since 2022.
Tesla and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
Recent notes from analysts show investors disapprove of Musk’s latest political moves across the board.
“Elon Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that Tesla investors/shareholders want him to take,” Wedbush Securities analyst and Tesla Bull Dan Ives wrote in a note on Sunday.
William Blair analysts Jed Dorsheimer and Mark Shooter wrote in a note on Monday that “investors are growing tired of the distraction” and that shareholders would “prefer this effort to be channeled towards the robotaxi rollout.”
William Blair also downgraded Tesla from “buy” to “hold” based on regulatory headwinds from Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which would eliminate tax credits for electric vehicles.
According to Silver Bulletin’s composite average of public opinion polls, the share of Americans with an unfavorable view of Musk has now risen to 55% from 45% at the end of 2024, and the trend is present across party lines.
Philip Bell, political strategist and CEO of Tower K Group, told Business Insider on Monday that as a Tesla investor himself, he doesn’t think it would be disastrous for Tesla if Musk leaves the company entirely to pursue politics.
“I think it could be beneficial to Tesla because you’ll have that belief of founder risk finally go away,” said Bell, “And number two, the DNA that he has infused in Tesla will allow it to succeed for quite some time — there are a lot of people there who are able to innovate and obviously able to do the nuts and bolts of putting cars together.”
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