Tesla’s stock has fallen more than 26 percent since Elon Musk became a central figure in President Donald Trump’s administration and kicked off his leadership with a now-infamous salute at Trump’s celebratory inaugural rally.
While addressing a crowd of Trump’s supporters on Inauguration Day, Musk brought his hand across his chest and then launched it into the air with his hand and wrist straight – earning intense scrutiny for what some believe was a “Nazi salute” or “Roman salute.”
While Musk’s electric vehicle company, Tesla, had enjoyed a large uptick in stock value due to his proximity to the Trump campaign, since the day after he made the gesture, Tesla’s stock has steadily dropped from $424.07 to $290.80 as of Wednesday.
That equates to a roughly $400 billion drop in the company’s value.
It’s a potential sign that shareholders may be willing to ditch the monetary value Tesla may bring to push back against Musk, a billionaire who has recently been bestowed “special government employee.”
Musk and the American Defamation League have both denied Musk’s gesture was connected to a “Nazi salute.”
But the salute, in combination with Musk’s recent implementation of the Department of Government Efficiency, a temporary organization within the Executive Office, has only contributed to public frustrations with Musk.
Those frustrations have manifested in Americans and Europeans pulling out investments in Tesla – both as shareholders and vehicle owners.
Kevin Smith, a longtime Tesla shareholder who owns two Tesla cars sold his shares in November believing Musk was too “toxic”, according to the Washington Post.
The company sold fewer than 10,000 vehicles in Europe in January– a 45 percent drop compared to sales one year ago.
As part of a larger push to dispute Musk, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, has asked the CEOs of six asset managers, including Blackrock and Vanguard, to review Tesla’s valuation as part of retirement funds.
“This is about safeguarding workers’ retirements,” she said in a statement obtained by the New York Times. “Just this week we saw Tesla stock continue to sink faster than a Cybertruck in quicksand as European sales fell off a cliff. So, we knew we needed to act.”
Similar frustrations have also swept over employees at Tesla who believe Musk is disengaged from the vehicle company while focusing on his role in the government, the Post reported.
In addition to his role supporting Trump, Musk also heads SpaceX, X – formerly Twitter, xAI, Neuralink and the Boring Company.
Employees at Tesla told the Post there is rising concern that Musk’s relationship with Trump could hurt the company’s brand.
Musk, the richest man in the world, derives approximately 60 percent of his wealth from his Tesla shares, according to Fortune. With the company’s stock dwindling around 25 percent over the last month, Musk’s net worth could be down more than $50 billion.
