Trump says US education is getting out of DEI ‘after being in that jungle for a long time’ – as it happened

Donald Trump is reportedly planning to exempt automakers from some US tariffs, the Financial Times reports.

According to the FT, two unnamed sources say that Trump’s “trade war climbdown”, in response to “intense lobbying by industry executives”, would “exempt car parts from the tariffs that Trump is imposing on imports from China …

“The exemptions would leave in place a 25 per cent tariff Trump imposed on all imports of foreign-made cars. A separate 25 per cent levy on parts would also remain and is due to take effect from May 3.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged on Wednesday that talks in London had been marked by emotions and expressed hope that future joint work would lead to peace.

“Emotions have run high today. But it is good that 5 countries met to bring peace closer,” the Ukrainian president wrote on the X social media platform. “The American side shared its vision. Ukraine and other Europeans presented their inputs.”

He pledged Ukraine would always abide by its constitution and said he believed Ukraine’s western partners, including the United States, would “act in line with its strong decisions”, an oblique reference to American criticism of Zelenskyy’s statement that Ukraine could not recognise Russian control over the Crimean peninsula.

Here is the full story on Trump’s attacks on Zelenskyy from my colleagues Dan Sabbagh and Pjotr Sauer:

Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of jeopardising what he claimed was an imminent peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, as he gave the clearest hint yet that the US would be willing to formally recognise Russia’s seizure of Crimea as part of any agreement.

The US president claimed a deal to end the war – largely negotiated between Washington and Moscow – was close, while the vice-president, JD Vance, said the agreement would include a proposal to freeze the conflict roughly along the current frontlines.

After a day of speculation and partial disclosure of the terms of the peace proposal, Trump attacked his Ukrainian counterpart for complaining that Kyiv was unwilling to cede Crimea to Russia – the most contentious aspect of the tentative agreement that has leaked so far.

Stock markets rise as Trump backtracks on high China tariffs and firing Federal Reserve chair

Lauren Almeida in London and Lauren Aratani in New York write:

Stock markets rose around the world after Donald Trump said his tariffs on China would come down “substantially” and he had “no intention” of firing the chair of the US central bank, Jerome Powell.

Weeks of tough talk on trade from White House officials have rattled investors and Trump now appears to be softening his tone. The president told reporters in Washington on Tuesday he planned to be “very nice” to China in trade talks and that tariffs could drop in both countries if they could reach a deal, adding:

It will come down substantially, but it won’t be zero.

Overnight in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose by nearly 2%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 2.4% and the South Korean Kospi gained 1.6%. The rally spread to Europe in early trading on Wednesday, with the UK’s FTSE 100 index up 1.6%, while the Italian FTSE MIB rose by 1.1%. Germany’s Dax gained 2.6% and France’s Cac 2.1%. Meanwhile, US stocks opened on a high Wednesday morning, with the Dow rallying over 800 points, and the Nasdaq Composite up over 3%.

On Wednesday, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, also took a softer, optimistic tone on China in remarks delivered at the Institute of International Finance in Washington DC, saying that China “knows it needs to change”. He said:

If China is serious on less dependence on export-led manufacturing growth and rebalancing toward a domestic economy … let’s rebalance together. This is an incredible opportunity.

Bessent told investors in a private meeting on Tuesday that he expects a “de-escalation” of the trade war between China and the US in the “very near future”:

‘America First’ does not mean America alone. To the contrary, it is a call for deeper collaboration and mutual respect among trade partners.

The Ukrainian delegation had “productive” talks with US envoy Keith Kellogg in London on Wednesday after planned negotiations there were downgraded, Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said on Wednesday.

“We talked about our consistent position regarding a ceasefire, also about security guarantees. For my part, I believe the meeting was very productive and successful,” Umerov said in televised comments, shortly after Donald Trump once again lambasted Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

US justice department cancels hundreds of grants for police and victims of crime

The US justice department has canceled hundreds of ongoing grants that funded everything from services for mental health care for police officers to support programs for victims of crime and sexual assault, according to internal records and four sources familiar with the matter.

At least 365 grants from the Office of Justice Programs, the department’s largest grant-making arm, were terminated late on Tuesday, two sources told Reuters. In fiscal year 2023, that office collectively awarded $4.4bn in funding, according to the justice department’s website.

Among the programs that are being targeted include grants that supported transgender victims of crime, hotlines used by crime victims, human trafficking grants awarded to organizations that work with immigrants and refugees, programs to curb juvenile delinquency and safeguard incarcerated youth, and funding to help state-run hate crime reporting, according to a partial list of terminated grants seen by Reuters.

In an email sent to Office of Justice Programs staff on Tuesday, the deputy assistant attorney general, Maureen Henneberg, said that canceled grants “no longer support the department’s priorities”. She added that the new funding priorities will focus on “certain law enforcement operations, combating violent crime, protecting American children, supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and promoting coordination of law enforcement efforts at all levels of government”.

A justice department spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.

Many justice department employees who work on managing and awarding the grants did not learn about the cancellations until the grantees were notified on Tuesday, the sources said.

Trump cuts federal grants to Louisiana plantation museum focused on reality of slavery

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS ) has terminated two grants for Black history and culture that were awarded to the Whitney Plantation, a former indigo, sugar and rice plantation in Louisiana that focuses on the truths of slavery and the experiences of people who were enslaved. IMLS provides resources and support to libraries, archives and museums in all 50 states and territories.

The termination comes as the Trump administration has both gutted federal funding aimed at arts and cultural institutions and has pushed to end state and federal initiatives in support of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The Whitney Plantation already received one of the grants this year, but the other, which was to help fund an exhibit about how enslaved people resisted on plantations, was set to be completed in June this year. Without the funding, the Whitney stands to lose about $55,000. The exhibit on resistance to slavery, on which the museum had worked for three years, was due to open in January 2026.

When the Whitney Plantation opened in 2014 as a museum, it was the first plantation in the country dedicated to memorializing slavery and honoring enslaved people – most plantations in the US, often used as sites for weddings or other lighthearted forms of tourism, instead erase the history of slavery.

In March, the IMLS itself was a target for Donald Trump and the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), which has been responsible for numerous cuts to the federal government since it began operating in January. In a March executive order, Trump called for the IMLS to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” within seven days of the order. Also in March, Doge put nearly all of the IMLS’s employees on administrative leave, rendering it difficult for the federal agency to fully function. As a result, library systems and museums across the country have reported concerns about receiving promised IMLS grants, while others, like the Whitney Plantation, have been notified that their grants are terminated.

Donald Trump attacked the federal judge overseeing a legal challenge to his effort to punish a major law firm on Wednesday and appeared to confuse two legal cases.

Trump said on Wednesday that he was suing the firm, Perkins Coie. But it is actually Perkins Coie that is suing him for a 6 March executive order that essentially makes it impossible for the firm to do business with the federal government or represent clients who have business before it. Trump had sued Perkins Coie as part of a wide ranging lawsuit in Florida in 2022 before a different judge, Donald Middlebrooks. That case was dismissed in September 2022.

The suit filed by Perkins Coie has been assigned to US district judge Beryl Howell, whom Trump attacked on Wednesday.

“I’m suing the law firm of Perkins Coie for their egregious and unlawful acts, in particular the conduct of a specific member of this firm, only to find out that the Judge assigned to this case is Beryl Howell, an Obama appointment, and a highly biased and unfair disaster,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“She ruled against me in the past, in a shocking display of sick judicial temperament, on a case that ended up working out very well for me, on appeal,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Her ruling was so pathologically bad that it became the “talk of the town.” I could have a 100% perfect case and she would angrily rule against me. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome, and she’s got a bad case of it. To put it nicely, Beryl Howell is an unmitigated train wreck. NO JUSTICE!!!”

Neither Perkins Coie nor the White House immediately returned a request for comment.

The government previously asked Howell to be recused from the case – a request that she rejected.

“When the U.S. Department of Justice engages in this rhetorical strategy of ad hominem attack, the stakes become much larger than only the reputation of the targeted federal judge. This strategy is designed to impugn the integrity of the federal judicial system and blame any loss on the decision-maker rather than fallacies in the substantive legal arguments presented,” Howell wrote in an opinion denying the request to recuse herself.

Perkins Coie has already secured a temporary restraining order blocking portions of the order. The firm asked Howell this week to permanently block the order.

Another firm challenging a similar order, WilmerHale, has made a similar request in a separate case. The firms Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey are also suing the Trump administration in challenges of executive orders that are widely seen to be an effort to intimidate lawyers from taking on cases adverse to the administration.

In a video post announcing that he will not seek re-election next year at the end of his latest term in the US Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois had a warning.

“Right now the challenges facing our country are historic and unprecedented. The threats to our democracy and way of life are very real,” he said.

He continued: “And I can assure you I will do everything in my power to fight for Illinois and the future of our country every day of my remaining time in the Senate.”

He said he had spent half his life in national politics. “I’ve always tried to stand up to power,” he said. He pays tribute to his family and his staff and then points out that the Illinois junior senator, Tammy Duckworth, who will inherit from him the status as senior senator for the state (ie she will then become the longer serving of the two senators, with someone filling the then junior seat vacated by Durbin), is “a trusted friend and an effective leader”, adding that “she will be a real asset to Illinois and the nation” as our state’s senior senator.

Durbin titled the video “Time to pass the torch”. It echoes Joe Biden who came into the presidency promising to be a bridge to the next generation but then deciding to run for a second term at 81 and eventually having to drop out under pressure four months before the 2024 election, after being urged by his own party to “pass the torch”. Donald Trump then beat Biden’s successor Kamala Harris for the White House.

In the latest legal wrinkle in the vexed and constitution-testing case of Kilmar Ábrego García, the Trump administration moments ago continued to resist the federal judge’s orders to produce information about the steps it has taken, if any, to return him to the US after he was, by the government’s admission, mistakenly removed to El Salvador without due process.

Drew Ensign, a deputy assistant attorney general, filed a sealed motion asking for a stay of the judge’s order to provide sworn testimony and documents about efforts to return Ábrego García, who was living and working in Baltimore and subject to court protection against deportation to his native El Salvador before he was snatched up by the immigration authorities last month.

The request comes just hours after federal judge Paula Xinis in Maryland castigated the Trump administration and accused it of bad faith in trying to evade her orders without fully describing why it has special privilege to do so.

Xinis had given the administration until 6pm ET today to produce information. The White House has instead filed a sealed motion for a stay of seven days of her order, the Associated Press reports, and is also requesting relief from providing daily status updates on the Ábrego García’s status and their efforts to get him back – which courts have characterized essentially as non-efforts.

Earlier, we brought you Trump’s comments that he’s apparently suing Perkins Coie, one of the law firms that has sued his administration after Trump issued punitive executive orders because of their connection to adversaries or involvement in causes against him.

While we get some clarity on what Trump is actually doing, this is from Politico.

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday called on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to refocus on their core missions of macroeconomic stability and development, claiming they have strayed too far into vanity projects such as climate change that have reduced their effectiveness.

Reuters reports that Bessent, in remarks outlining his vision for US engagement with the IMF and World Bank on the sidelines of the institutions’ spring meetings, said that they serve critical roles in the international financial system.

“And the Trump administration is eager to work with them, so long as they can stay true to their missions,” Bessent said in prepared remarks to the Institute of International Finance.

“The IMF and World Bank have enduring value. But mission creep has knocked these institutions off course. We must enact key reforms to ensure the Bretton Woods institutions are serving their stakeholders - not the other way around,” he said, calling on US allies to join the effort. He added:

America First does not mean America alone.

Bessent said the IMF needed to focus on its key mandate and adhere to strong standards in its lending.

The IMF was once unwavering in its mission of promoting global monetary cooperation and financial stability. Now it devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender, and social issues. These issues are not the IMF’s mission.

And sometimes, the IMF needs to say ‘No.’ The organization has no obligation to lend to countries that fail to implement reforms.

Bessent added that the World Bank must be “tech-neutral and prioritize affordability in energy investment. In most cases, this means investing in gas and other fossil fuel-based energy production.” He added that it could also finance renewable energy projects along with systems to manage energy latency in wind and solar.

Trump’s announcement that he’s suing Perkins Coie comes after the law firm successfully sued his administration for punitive executive orders which stripped security clearances from the firm’s lawyers, mandated the termination of any contracts and barred federal government employees from engaging with its attorneys or allowing them access to government buildings.

A federal judge on 12 March temporarily blocked most of the executive order Trump issued against Perkins Coie, finding it probably violated the US constitution. The judge ruled that the president used national security concerns as a pretext to punish the firm Perkins Coie for once working with Hillary Clinton.

Trump has punished several law firms with executive orders because of their connection to adversaries or involvement in causes against him. The orders threaten to cripple the firms by essentially making it impossible for them to do business with any client that has business before the government.

Per NPR, Trump’s executive order accused Perkins Coie of a range of nefarious actions over the years allegedly seeking to undermine democratic elections as well as the integrity of US courts and law enforcement. The order specifically mentioned the firm’s representation of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and the role attorneys at Perkins Coie played in the creation of a dossier of unsubstantiated allegations about possible Trump-Russia ties.

While nine other law firms cut deals with the Trump administration to avoid being similarly targeted, Perkins Coie and two others sued the administration, its lawsuit pushing back against any allegation of wrongdoing. It noted that Trump filed a lawsuit in 2022 against Perkins Coie, Clinton and others alleging a conspiracy against him. The case was dismissed months later by a federal court.

On 4 April more than 500 legal firms moved to file an amicus brief signed a brief in support of Perkins Coie’s fight back against Trump’s punitive actions.

The firm and others named in the executive orders earlier are each representing clients in lawsuits against the Trump administration over issues such as immigration, transgender rights and firings of government workers.

Analysis: A battle looms over rule of law as some courts start to flex their muscles against Trump

The US supreme court and other federal courts have begun flexing their muscles to push back on Donald Trump’s efforts to defy judicial orders, escalating a hugely consequential battle over the rule of law.

The supreme court issued a significant order early Saturday morning blocking the federal government from removing people who had been detained in northern Texas from the US. Separately, US district judge James Boasberg has found probable cause to hold the government in contempt for defying his orders to halt deportations.

In another case, the US district judge Paula Xinis has forced the government to provide daily updates in its efforts to comply with court orders to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Ábrego García – the man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

It is a dynamic that underscores how a constitutional crisis between Trump and the courts is likely to be a push and pull between the government and judges that is simmering through the legal system and could very well break it.

US senator Peter Welch of Vermont, a Democrat, met with Mohsen Mahdawi on Monday at the prison and posted a video account of their conversation on X. Mahdawi said he was “in good hands”. He said his work is centered on peacemaking and that his empathy extends beyond the Palestinian people to Jews and to the Israelis.

“I’m staying positive by reassuring myself in the ability of justice and the deep belief of democracy,” Mahdawi said in Welch’s video. “This is the reason I wanted to become a citizen of this country, because I believe in the principles of this country.”

My colleagues Dan Sabbagh and Pjotr Sauer have more on Marco Rubio’s abrupt cancelation of his trip to London to discuss ending Russia’s war in Ukraine and the subsequent downgrading of the talks.

Ministerial-level Ukraine peace talks that were due to take place in London on Wednesday have been postponed at the last minute amid speculation that Russia is willing to change its position and after the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said he could not attend.

The UK Foreign Office indicated that ministerial-level meetings would be replaced by discussions at an official level – though initial public comments from the Kremlin suggested Moscow still opposed Nato countries sending peacekeepers to Ukraine.

The late downgrade came after reports apparently from Russia and the US suggesting the two countries had made progress in separate bilateral peace discussions between the White House and Kremlin.

Leaks to the Financial Times and other media indicate that Russia is willing to abandon its territorial claims to three Ukrainian regions it only partly occupies after three years of fighting in return for the US formally recognising the annexation of Crimea as part of a ceasefire agreement.

At present neither Russia nor the US has gone on the record to confirm the reports, though on Monday the US president, Donald Trump, said he would be providing “full detail” on the peace proposals “over the next three days”.

But a source familiar with Moscow’s thinking confirmed to the Guardian that Vladimir Putin had offered to freeze the conflict in Ukraine along the current frontlines during recent talks with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy.

However, the source cautioned that it remained unclear what other demands Putin might present – and cautioned that the apparent concession could be a tactic to draw Trump into accepting broader Russian terms.

Talks between the US, Ukraine and European officials to discuss ending Russia’s war in Ukraine faltered on Wednesday as US secretary of state Marco Rubio abruptly cancelled his trip to London and negotiations were downgraded, reports Reuters.

Rubio’s no show prompted a broader meeting of foreign ministers from Ukraine, the UK, France and Germany to be cancelled, although talks continued at a lower level. The US would now be represented by Ukraine envoy Gen Keith Kellogg.

The downgrading of the talks comes at a critical time, just days after president Donald Trump warned that Washington could walk away if there was no progress on a deal soon. Trump raised the pressure on Sunday when he said he hoped Moscow and Kyiv would make a deal this week to end the three-year war.

According to Reuters, a source close to the discussions said the downgrading of the trip came after Ukraine drafted a paper for the Europeans on Tuesday, in which it said there would be no discussions on territorial issues until “a full and unconditional ceasefire”.

The source told Reuters that the apparent US nervousness could indicate that the Ukrainian position did not align with what Washington’s representatives had agreed so far with the Russians.

Rubio spoke to the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, late on Tuesday and said he looked forward to rescheduling his trip in the coming months after Wednesday’s “technical meetings”.

Speaking on his arrival in London with the foreign and defense ministers, Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said the talks would focus on ways to achieve a full and unconditional ceasefire as a first step to peace. “Despite everything, we will work for peace,” he said on social media.

The meeting is a follow-up to a similar session in Paris last week where US, Ukrainian and European officials discussed ways to move forward and narrow positions. During those talks, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff presented a paper to the participants outlining proposals in which Ukraine in particular, but also Russia, would need to make concessions, according to three diplomats aware of the talks, Reuters reports.

The veterans affairs department (VA) is ordering staff to report colleagues for instances of “anti-Christian bias” to a newly established taskforce, as part of Donald Trump’s push to reshape government policy on religious expression.

The VA secretary, Doug Collins, in an internal email seen by the Guardian, said the department had launched a taskforce to review the Joe Biden administration’s “treatment of Christians”.

“The VA taskforce now requests all VA employees to submit any instance of anti-Christian discrimination to Anti-ChristianBiasReporting.@va.gov,” the email reads. “Submissions should include sufficient identifiers such as names, dates, and locations.”

The email states that the department will review “all instances of anti-Christian bias” but that it is specifically seeking instances including “any informal policies, procedures, or unofficially understandings hostile to Christian views”.

In addition, the department is seeking “any adverse responses to requests for religious exemptions under the previous vaccine mandates” and “any retaliatory actions taken or threatened in response to abstaining from certain procedures or treatments (for example: abortion or hormone therapy)”.

Donald Trump signed an executive order within weeks of his second term aimed at ending the “anti-Christian weaponization of government”, and announced the formation of a taskforce, led by the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to end all forms of “anti-Christian targeting and discrimination” in the government.

US stock index futures leapt on Wednesday, after president Donald Trump backed off from his threats to fire the head of the Federal Reserve and raised hopes for a trade deal with China.

Shares of Tesla, meanwhile, rose 6.3% in premarket trading as the company kicked off magnificent seven – the group of technology stocks that has played a dominant role in the US stock market – earnings on a positive note.

According to Reuters, Tesla reported a profit for its core auto business that topped rock-bottom expectations.

Trump said on Tuesday he had “no intention” of firing Fed chair Jerome Powell, walking back from his comments that Powell’s termination could not come “fast enough” after heavy criticism in the past few days.

Hopes for trade negotiations between the US and China, which have been locked in an escalating tit-for-tat tariff war, also helped lift sentiment after Trump expressed optimism that a trade deal with the country could “substantially” lower tariffs on Chinese goods.

Markets welcomed Trump’s change in tone, with futures jumping in extended trade on Tuesday and recovering after the attacks on Fed’s Powell had rattled investors and sparked sharp losses in US assets, including stocks and the dollar, earlier in the week.

Although Trump backtracked on his statement to fire Powell, he reiterated that he wanted the Fed to be more active in lowering interest rates, reports Reuters. Powell said last week that the central bank will be cautious in easing policy given the lack of clarity on how sweeping changes to US trade rules will impact growth and inflation.

The US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr on Tuesday called sugar “poison” and recommended that Americans eat “zero” added sugar in their food, while acknowledging that the federal government was unlikely to be able to eliminate it from products.

Kennedy, however, said that better labeling was needed for foods and that new government guidelines on nutrition would recommend people avoid sugar completely.

The health and human services secretary also announced plans to eliminate the last eight government-approved synthetic food dyes from the US food supply within two years.

Kennedy said at a press conference on Tuesday:

Sugar is poison and Americans need to know that it is poisoning us.

He added moments later:

I don’t think that we’re going to be able to eliminate sugar, but I think what we need to do, probably, is give Americans knowledge about how much sugar is in their products, and also, with the new nutrition guidelines, we’ll give them a very clear idea about how much sugar they should be using, which is zero.

The secretary said the public is under-informed about food.

Americans don’t know what they’re eating. We’re going to start informing Americans about what they’re eating.

Meanwhile, he did not talk about vaccines or vaccinations at the press conference, but it was reported by Politico, citing sources familiar with departmental discussions, that Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, was considering removing the Covid-19 shot from the official federal list of recommended inoculations for children.

Analysts attribute Tesla’s overall difficulties to a number of factors, but ultimately conclude Musk’s role in the White House has caused a branding crisis for Tesla. The company is at a major crossroads, analysts say, that will only be remedied if Musk leaves his role in Doge and returns to Tesla as CEO full-time.

In addition to a drop in sales, a 50% dip in share prices, existing Tesla owners are looking to sell their vehicles in droves, Teslas have been vandalized across the country and in response to ongoing protests of the automaker, the Vancouver International Auto show removed the electronic carmaker from its March lineup. The company also recalled 46,000 Cybertrucks – nearly all that had been sold.

Musk said that the drop in demand is due to the macro economic trends – not branding. “Tesla is not immune to the macro demand for cars,” Musk said. “When there is economic uncertainty, people generally want to pause on doing a major capital purchase like a car. Absent macro issues we don’t see any reduction in demand.”

Analysts are not convinced.

“If Musk leaves the White House there will be permanent brand damage … but Tesla will have its most important asset and strategic thinker back as full-time CEO to drive the vision and the long term story will not be altered,” read a Wedbush Securities analyst note. Wedbush remained bullish on the company’s chances of turning its financials around. “IF Musk chooses to stay with the Trump White House it could change the future of Tesla/brand damage will grow.”

The company declined to provide forward-looking guidance for the next quarter citing “shifting global trade policy on the automotive and energy supply chains”.

“While we are making prudent investments that will set up both our vehicle and energy businesses for growth, the rate of growth this year will depend on a variety of factors, including the rate of acceleration of our autonomy efforts, production ramp at our factories and the broader macroeconomic environment,” the earnings report reads. “We will revisit our 2025 guidance in our Q2 update.”

The company did warn, however, that “changing political sentiment” could meaningfully impact short-term demand for Tesla products.

Though Elon Musk has acknowledged there have been “rocky moments” of late, he remained optimistic about Tesla’s future.

“The future for Tesla is better than ever,” he said. “The value of the company is delivering sustainable abundance with our affordable AI-powered robots. If you say, what’s the ideal future that you can imagine, that’s what you’d want. You’d want abundance for all in a way that’s sustainable, that’s good for the environment. Basically this is a happy future, this is the happiest future you can imagine.”

That “happy future” includes the company’s plans for fully self-driving cars, said the billionaire CEO as he laid out an ambitious timeline for when he expects the vehicles to hit US roads in some cities – “by the end of the year”. Tesla has historically struggled to meet timelines Musk has publicly set for the launch of new products, especially when it comes to self-driving.

“The acid test is, can you go to sleep in your car and wake up in your destination and I’m confident that will be available in many cities in the US by the end of this year,” he said.

This would be on top of the Robotaxi service the company plans to roll out in June. “I predict that there will be millions of Teslas operating fully autonomously in the second half of next year,” Musk said.

Despite missing Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom line, initial analyst reactions are optimistic given many had significantly lowered their expectations after the company reported a massive dip in vehicle deliveries.

“Against the backdrop of catastrophic expectations, with everything from sales to margins projected to continue the slump, the less-than-bad numbers have been received as welcome news by Tesla investors,” said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com.

Monteiro continued:

In a curious turn of events, it’s as if numbers show that even at the worst moment, Elon and the team’s operation can still bring a robust $19.3bn in revenue, with total revenue partly making up for the huge drop in auto revenue.

If this is the worst it gets for Tesla, then certainly there must be some upside for the stock once tailwinds, such as the highly awaited cheaper model and the Robotaxi, finally hit the market later this year.