𝔼𝕝𝕠𝕟 𝕄𝕦𝕤𝕜'𝕤 𝕕𝕖𝕖𝕡 𝕕𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕠 𝕡𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕤 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕒𝕕 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕓𝕦𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤

𝔼𝕝𝕠𝕟 𝕄𝕦𝕤𝕜'𝕤 𝕓𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕜𝕦𝕡 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕋𝕣𝕦𝕞𝕡 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕙𝕦𝕣𝕥 𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕟 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕤𝕖

𝗘

lon Musk's decision to go all in on Donald Trump never made much sense. 

His scorched-earth approach to breaking up with Trump is even harder to square. 

 As a close Trump ally, Musk's actions inevitably affected Tesla - the biggest piece of his business empire and the maker of one of the most visible and expensive items that Americans can purchase: electric vehicles. 

 First, Musk turned off Tesla's core customers, Democrats on the coasts, by pouring money and using his influence to help Trump return to the White House. 

Then he took a chainsaw to the federal workforce. Trump confirmed their relationship has soured, with Musk repeatedly blasting the president's sweeping domestic agenda bill in recent days and a public fight on social media on Thursday (US time). 

Now, Musk's war of words with the president risk turning off the same Trump voters who may have considered buying a Tesla until this week. 

 Not only that, but Tesla's ambitions for self-driving vehicles require government approval, something that no longer looks like a sure thing amid the Musk-Trump feud. 

Other Musk businesses like SpaceX are built on government contracts - contracts that Trump wasted no time threatening on Thursday. 

 The past 12 months - with Musk marrying himself to the polarising Trump brand and then breaking up with him - look like a textbook example of what a CEO should not do, especially a consumer-facing CEO. 

 "It's a bit of a head-scratcher that Musk is going so rogue-negative towards Trump so quickly. It's a potentially very hazardous path," Dan Ives, a senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities and a longtime Tesla bull, told CNN in a phone interview on Thursday. 

 The Musk-Trump break-up, playing out on the billionaires' respective social media platforms, was both entirely predictable and shocking nonetheless. 

 After Musk blasted Trump's policy bill as a "disgusting abomination" earlier this week, Trump suggested Musk has "Trump derangement syndrome.

"Musk responded by undercutting Trump's political prowess, saying: "Without me, Trump would have lost the election." 

 As two of the world's most powerful people continued to trade public barbs, Tesla shares dropped lower and lower. 

 Tesla shares (TSLA) plummeted 14 percent as the bromance between Trump and Musk imploded in front of the entire world. 

The selloff erased about US$152 billion (NZ$252 billion) from Tesla's market value and US$34 billion (NZ$56.4 billion) off Musk's net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

 Tesla shares rebounded on Friday morning but only modestly. Trump told CNN's Dana Bash on Friday that he's "not even thinking about Elon" and won't be speaking to him in the near future. 

 "He's got a problem. The poor guy's got a problem," Trump said.

𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀: Matt Egan (CNN)

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