Tesla slides 14% after the Elon Musk-Donald Trump tiff goes off the rails

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) ended trading on Thursday with one of its worst declines in history after President Trump and Elon Musk engaged in an escalating war of words during the trading session.

An irritated Trump started off the day saying he was very disappointed with Elon Musk for criticizing his “big beautiful bill” and it ended with him floating the idea of terminating the government contracts of companies owned by Musk. In between, there were a shocking number of insults and grievances traded back and forth.

Investors sold Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock on concerns that the Trump premium may have faded and that there could be a new headwind for the electric vehicle maker, shortly before the crucial launch of its robotaxi service in the U.S.

The 14.3% decline for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) ranked as one of its top ten worst days ever on a percentage basis. On a year-to-date basis, shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) are down about 28%. The Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 2X Shares ETF (TSLL) ended the Thursday trading session down close to 29%.

Elon Musk’s other companies include SpaceX (SPACE), xAI, Neuralink, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and social media site X. Of note, private market trading on SpaceX (SPACE) indicated a decline of about 8% at last check. That share price slump may be linked to Trump’s Truth Social post which stated, “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.”