It was a costly spat.
As President Donald Trump and Elon Musk feuded on social media Thursday afternoon, shares of Musk’s Tesla Inc. plummeted more than 14% — erasing $150 billion of the electric vehicle maker’s value.
Investors weren’t the only ones looking to dump Tesla.
Trump is looking to sell or give away the red Tesla Model S he bought in March, a White House official confirmed to the New York Post on Friday.
Trump bought the car, and staged a related photo-op at the White House, as a show of support for Musk, who came under criticism for his work as a senior adviser to the president and saw a spate of incidents where Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations were targeted by protesters and vandals.
Prior to that, Tesla benefited from Musk’s association with Trump.
Tesla’s value jumped more than $450 billion after the November election, with investors believing the company would benefit from Trump easing regulatory oversight of Tesla and embracing Musk’s plans for millions of driverless cars on U.S. roads.
Tesla rebounded, at least partly, in trading Friday as the feud simmered down publicly.
When markets closed, shares of Tesla were selling for more than $295 a share, up about 3.7% from the day before.
