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Shares of Tesla fell 14 percent on Thursday as President Donald Trump threatened to pull government contracts for its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk’s companies, escalating a war of words over the spending bill.
The move dropped the EV maker $152 billion in value, the biggest hit to its market cap ever, putting it below the $1 trillion benchmark and settling Thursday at $916 billion.
“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
CNBC reports that Trump spoke from the Oval Office earlier Thursday and said Musk was upset that EV credits were not included in the bill.
“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday. “I was surprised.”
“Whatever,” Musk fired back as the president spoke.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” he posted on X.
Musk, the world’s richest man, in recent days has threatened to make lawmakers who vote for the bill face primary elections and called the bill a “disgusting abomination,” marking a significant shift in his comments about the administration.
The fall in shares comes after the EV maker saw a 22 percent rally in May despite weak sales numbers, with Musk wrapping up his time as head of Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Shares are down nearly 18 percent this week as Musk had continued to rail against the budget bill and this year, shares were down nearly 30 percent and well off the high of $488.54 reached December 18.
Since Musk’s special government employee term ended Friday, he’s appeared at odds with the Trump administration and gone on a full assault against the president’s signature tax-cut bill.
Read More: Trump, Musk feud boils over as threat, insults fly online
On Friday, company shares climbed in U.S. premarket trading after tensions between Musk and President Trump fueled a $152 billion rout for the stock a day earlier.
Shares of Tesla were up 4.6 percent in premarket trading as of about 8 a.m. ET. Analysts cited a Politico report that Trump had scheduled a call Friday with Musk to broker a truce.
However, a senior White House official told NBC News Friday that Trump is “not interested” in a call with Musk.
“Musk needs Trump and Trump needs Musk for many reasons and these two becoming friends again will be a huge relief for Tesla shares,” wrote Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives in a note Friday morning. “We will be monitoring the situation closely today but we believe Tesla shares are way oversold on this news.”
Musk and Trump have come to verbal blows in recent days as the Tesla chief’s tenure as head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency came to an end last week.
Trump initially praised Musk’s handling of DOGE, an initiative started by the Trump administration that aimed to cut costs within the federal government.
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