Michael Huber 
CNN
—
Elon Musk spent the weekend with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, getting a round-trip ride on Air Force One. While Musk has spent an increasing amount of time with Trump, three of his companies are having a rough go.
His X social media platform was down for much of the day Monday; Tesla shares plunged 15% and erased the last of their post-Election Day gains; and SpaceX continued to struggle with the aftermath of yet another rocket explosion.
That’s taking a toll on Musk’s fortune: He lost $29 billion in net worth on Monday alone, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Musk has ramped up his visibility in politics and government, leading the new Department of Government Efficiency in what fans call efforts to curtail government fraud and critics call an unelected takeover and slash-and-burn. Meanwhile, his companies have struggled.
In an interview with Fox News Monday, Musk acknowledged that he runs his companies “with great difficulty” while also working for the Trump administration.
For a proponent of “hardcore” work up to 16 hours a day, the slump in his business interests points to a fundamental truth: No matter how in political favor their leadership, companies still need to be run – and preferably run well.
Tesla slumps
The market broadly slumped on Monday – but shares of Tesla fell even more sharply. The 15% drop in Tesla shares wiped out the last of any remaining gains since Election Day.
In a show of support, Trump said early Tuesday morning he would buy a Tesla.
“Elon Musk is’ ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “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.”
Musk thanked Trump in a post on X.
When Trump won the US presidential election in November, many shareholders thought Musk’s proximity to Trump would help the company by leading to looser regulations, currying favor with the White House and removing subsidies that had helped Tesla competitors.
The reality has been somewhat different.
Sales are dropping, especially in Europe, which some analysts say is a direct result of both competition in the marketplace and Musk’s wading into politics both in the US and abroad.
Tesla vehicles and showrooms have also been the targets of protestors and, in some cases, violence. Earlier this month a Tesla charging station in Boston was set on fire, and someone shot at a Tesla dealership in Oregon. Individual Tesla owners are claiming on social media their cars have been targeted as well.
Musk has responded by reposting supportive comments about Tesla and its cars and thanking people for their support. He’s blamed liberal activists including mega donor George Soros for the attacks.
Trump, in his Truth Social post Tuesday, claimed radical leftists were working to “illegally and collusively boycott Tesla” so they can “attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for.”
“Why should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???” Trump added.
Responding to an X user posting about Tesla stock, Musk wrote: “It will be fine long-term.”
X goes down
On Monday, X was hit with a barrage of outages. Website DownDetector registered tens of thousands of reports that X was down.
Musk claimed the outage was due to a cyberattack.
“There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X,” he wrote on Monday afternoon. “We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved.”
He later agreed with an X user who posted: “they want to silence you and this platform.”
Eric Noonan, CEO of cybersecurity provider CyberSheath, told CNN that it’s likely too early to tell if an attack caused the issues.
“One of the things that should always be taken with a grain of salt is any statements made in the short period of time, immediately after, or even in this case during an attack,” Noonan said.
Musk spent $44 billion to take X, then known as Twitter, private in October 2022. Fidelity estimated last October that Musk had erased about 80% of the site’s value since his purchase.
SpaceX’s exploding rockets
The first two launches of SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket have blown up – most recently on Thursday. The debris from the explosions could be viewed for miles and even caused some flight disruptions.
The first explosion in January left debris scattered over Turks and Caicos.
Musk brushed off the rocket mishaps, replying to a photo of himself looking at debris from one of SpaceX’s multiple early rocket failures.
“Today was a minor setback,” he wrote last week. “Progress is measured by time. The next ship will be ready in 4 to 6 weeks.
The Federal Aviation Authority is still investigating the rockets’ failures.
