Yesterday, Tesla stock suffered its worst day in recent history, plummeting nearly 15%.
Featured Video
The stock, which props up Elon Musk’s tremendous wealth, plunged thanks to a number of factors, including the market’s bad day and massive outages at X, but as well as an underlying concern.
Some people are really upset with Tesla given Musk’s newfound authority within the government.
Musk was appointed as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), President Donald Trump’s new bureaucracy-lashing agency. Its frenetic pace and disregard for consequences have rendered it wildly unpopular. In the month since Musk started at DOGE, Tesla’s stock is down over 30%, while the Dow Jones is down just over 7%.
Musk has seen Tesla dealerships protested and Cybertrucks vandalized as people are announcing their profound regret in purchasing one of Musk’s electric vehicles.
Now, President Donald Trump is trying to come to Musk’s rescue. In a Truth Social post, he declared that protests of Tesla were “illegal” and that he would purchase a Tesla to show his support for Musk.
“To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for,” Trump wrote.
“In any event, I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”
The proclamation from Trump drew ironic responses from people online, given the president and his supporters’ penchant for boycotting products they don’t like.
In the past several years, conservatives have launched financial boycotts of brands like Bud Light, Target, Delta, and Chick-Fil-A over complaints about support for immigrants, transgender rights, and myriad other conservative flashpoints.
But now that Tesla is suffering, boycotts are bad again.
“Elon Musk & Tesla are going through a Bud Light moment. And I could not love it more,” wrote one.
“Trump’s MAGA cult has boycotted Target, Kellogg, the NFL, Netflix, Oreos, Gillette, Starbucks, HBO, Nike, Bud Light, Costco and so much more. But when it’s Tesla, boycotts are suddenly illegal?” asked a poster on X.
Others noted that the president specifically calling it out was proof that it was working.
“This is how you know it’s effective,” wrote the Tennessee Holler, sharing Trump’s post.
Some wondered about how Trump might enforce his bold proclamation.
“Are we about to get arrested for not buying a Tesla?” said another.
Over on Truth Social, naturally, the response was different. Instead, AI-generated images of Trump standing beside Cybertrucks wrapped in American flags filled the comments.
Trump did not provide any evidence of his new purchase, but he is already a Cybertruck owner, having been gifted one from Adin Ross.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.