Musk fears for sales Trump holds his hand over the richest man in the world

In a special appearance, Donald Trump promotes Tesla and Elon Musk in front of the White House. He can use all the help he can get: After SpaceX explosions and the Tesla and X Valley ride, Starlink is now in his sights.

Billionaires are losing out these days. Admittedly: Before Donald Trump's inauguration, they benefited from rising share prices. But in the seven weeks following January 20, things have gone downhill.

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Bernard Arnault (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE) lost 5 billion dollars in this period, Sergey Brin's (Google) fortune fell by 22 billion and Jeff Bezos (Amazon) even lost 29 billion dollars.

But Elon Musk takes the cake, as Bloomberg calculated on March 10: the world's richest man lost 129 billion dollars.

The paper does not even include Tesla's share price losses on that Monday: a cyber attack on its Platform X and a UBS warning about falling Tesla sales cost the South African company a further 18 billion dollars on that trading day alone, the Independent marvels.

And the business magazine "Fortune " writes of a "bloodbath".

Tesla boycott "illegal and rigged"

Elon Musk has become a lightning rod for all those who disagree with either his political influence in Europe or his work in the DOGE efficiency department:

Their frustration manifests itself online on X and physically on Tesla vehicles or branches. The downhill slide is so rapid that even Donald Trump is now trying to act as a brake.

The 53-year-old entrepreneur is doing a "fantastic job", Trump praised him in capital letters on March 11. A boycott against Tesla is "illegal and rigged", claims the US President: "radical left-wing nut jobs" are to blame.

He will soon buy a Tesla to advertise for Musk, the 78-year-old US president tweeted on his Truth Social platform.

The New Yorker kept his word the same day - at least as far as advertising was concerned: "Trump plays Tesla salesman while Musk's fortune plummets", blasphemed The Daily Beast.

"Trump turns the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom", headlines NBC News. It's really strange what happened yesterday in Washington D.C., the capital of the USA.

From domestic terrorism to Russia

Musk is being treated "very unfairly" by a "very small group" of people, says Trump at the press conference. Yet he is such a patriot, builds such great cars and makes such a difference in the government: he has already saved 500 billion - an adventurous claim. "

But Trump's support goes much further: when asked whether vandalism against Tesla stores should be treated as domestic terrorism, the Republican replies:

"I will. I will stop them. We'll get anybody who does that. Because they're hurting a great American company."

"There's no better team," says the US president, referring to Musk, who is unlikely to disagree with him given the state-run Tesla tupperware party.

In addition to cars, Canada and Mexico ("very unfair"), the EU ("terrible"), predecessor Joe Biden ("left a mess"), migrants ("millions of criminals"), Ukraine ("ceasefire") and Russia ("hopefully President Putin agrees too") are also to blame.

Courting Canada and Tesla customers

Justin Trudeau's successor Mark Carney praises Trump as a "gentleman". But Washington supports Canada with 200 billion dollars a year. And they actually have enough wood and energy themselves.

"Canada should become our 51st federal state. We wouldn't have a border problem, we wouldn't have a customs problem. They spend the least on the military, we spend the most on the military. You wouldn't have to worry about anything."

And is Trump actually buying a Tesla now? "Here's the bad news," he tells reporters:

"I'm not allowed to drive because I haven't driven a car in a long time. And I love driving, but I'm going to have [the Tesla] at the White House, and I'm going to let my staff use it. They're all excited about it. I'm not allowed to use it. Can you believe that?"

Trump is courting other states in his own way ("And when Greenland comes along, that's pretty good") on the one hand, and Tesla and favor for Musk ("You should appreciate him") on the other.

"He is implementing a system based on cronyism and bribery", explains "The New Republic" Trump's "clientelism", "while openly sabotaging the procedures that ensure neutrality in public service."

Is Starlink now also in a tailspin?

Elon Musk can make good use of this support. While the share prices of Tesla and X are plummeting, his successful company SpaceX is not inspiring hope either:

In the last eight months, there have been no fewer than four rocket false starts.

No wonder Musk is suddenly emphasizing that he will not cut Ukraine's Starlink connection, even though the billionaire is not known for being well-disposed towards Volodymyr Zelensky.

There is a reason for the new tone: Musk has no interest in the spread of boycotts or the uncertainty that Starlink will not honor its contracts.

The example of Eutelsat shows what even the slightest skepticism about Starlink's reliability can lead to:

The Franco-British satellite provider has made a media-effective offer to Kiev to step in if Starlink were to be switched off. Together with the announcement of EU investments, this caused the share price to rise sharply

Rumors are already circulating that Musk's actions are also dragging Starlink down: The richest man himself has allegedly retweeted a post on X in which a user attacks Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who is said to have withdrawn a billion-dollar Starlink order.

So does Elon Musk also have to go on the defensive in this area of business? At least he still has plenty of ammunition: "Forbes" still estimates his fortune at 324.3 billion dollars, making him the richest man in the world.

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