Trump-Musk fallout: Tesla gains, the UAW fires off a lawsuit, and Trump Media falls sharply again

The Elon Musk interview of former president Donald Trump on social media platform X did not include any major policy revelations, but did prompt some action on the legal front.

The United Auto Workers union has filed federal labor charges against Donald Trump and Elon Musk for alleged illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who the union said were standing up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity, such as strikes.

The UAW pointed to inaccurate information during the Trump-Musk interview on Monday night. “You walk in, you say, You want to quit? They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone,” stated Trump on the nature of auto worker strikes. The UAW noted that under federal law, it is clear that workers cannot be fired for going on strike, and threatening to do so is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. “Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected,” stated UAW President Shawn Fain as he dug in further in favoring a candidate. Does the UAW leadership’s position still matter? Households with an UAW member have continued to vote for Democrats over Republicans over the last few elections, but at a slightly lower percentage than in the past, according to released data.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was up 3.44% in late morning trading on a strong day overall for tech stocks and the EV sector. The Musk-Trump interview did not delve deeply into any major Tesla-related topics, although the former president mentioned Tesla’s (TSLA) “great products.” Meanwhile, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (DJT) fell 6.4% in morning trading on Tuesday after Donald Trump made a notable return to social media site X on Monday. Shares of DJT are down more than 40% over the last six weeks.