We can now put a price on Elon Musk’s very public breakup with President Donald Trump.
Musk’s net worth dropped by $34 billion on Thursday, one of the worst single-day wipeouts of his personal wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Until Thursday, Musk had mostly kept his criticism geared toward the GOP’s “big beautiful bill.” Everything changed once Musk’s rant against the president turned personal.
Musk denied Trump’s characterization that Musk was only critical of the bill because it would remove tax credits that benefit Tesla. He then went further in his tirade, digging up old tweets from the president that appeared to back the CEO’s views, accusing Trump of having ties with the late financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and taking credit for helping Trump win the 2024 election.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to BI’s inquiry regarding Musk’s Epstein post. “The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
Trump responded with his own barbs, threatening to cancel federal contracts with Musk’s companies.
Musk said he’d immediately decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft in response to Trump’s threat.
Tesla shares plummeted more than 14%, representing about a $138 billion wipeout of the company’s total market cap.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated that $34 billion from Musk’s net worth was wiped out after Thursday’s fallout, representing one of the CEO’s biggest single-day losses.
In November 2021, Musk put up a poll on Twitter, asking his followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. More than 57% of 3.5 million responders said, “Yes.”
The post triggered a 16% decline in Tesla shares that week, leading to a $50 billion loss in the executive’s net worth.
Musk, for his part, has insisted that his social media posts don’t impact his companies’ worth.
However, the Securities and Exchange Commission has begged to differ.
The SEC sued Musk as a consequence of his infamous 2018 tweet in which he said he would take Tesla private at $420.
The settlement that followed included a $20 million fine and a stipulation that required Musk to get legal approval for any social media posts about Tesla. The arrangement became known as Musk’s “Twitter sitter.”
Musk has tried and failed to strike down the arrangement, taking his case to the Supreme Court in 2023. It rejected his appeal last April.
Musk and a spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
