Tesla's Disgrace

What happened to Tesla this year was not a "reputational hit." It was a a descent into madness and techno-fascism.

So Tesla’s net income sank 71 percent in the first quarter of 2025.

But why? According to the Wall Street Journal, Tesla was “hurt by competitive pressure” and “a reputational hit from Elon Musk’s polarizing role in the Trump administration.”

Indeed, protests against Tesla have spread around the world, thanks to CEO Elon Musk’s intimacy with Trump and recklessness at DOGE. The company had a bleak earnings report on Tuesday, and, while the stock price jumped a bit on Musk’s bromides, it’s still down for the month.

And, as of Wednesday, the worldwide Tesla Takedown protests are named as an official “risk factor” in the paperwork Tesla files with the SEC.

So the backlash against Musk is now so ferocious that Tesla’s lawyers feel the need to warn investors it could damage the business.

And this is after Musk has insisted he’s backing out of DOGE to spend more time with his money. (Others say not to trust him on this.) But while fact and fiction fight their usual cagematch in Washington, I want to talk about “reputational hits.”