With Tesla set to report second-quarter global vehicle deliveries on Wednesday, Chief Executive Elon Musk reignited his feud with President Donald Trump, sending TSLA lower in stock market action after excitement around the recent robotaxi service launch has quickly diminished.
Musk and Trump traded salvos online Monday and early Tuesday, sparring over the president's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The Senate passed the legislation on Tuesday, moving it to a House vote, then to Trump's desk by the end of this week. The current version of the legislation takes a tougher line on renewable energy tax credits and eliminates the $7,500 tax credit for EVs on Sept. 30, which will have a significant impact on Tesla sales.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, a longtime Tesla bull, wrote Tuesday that the "situation has now turned into a soap opera that remains an overhang on Tesla's stock with investors fearing that the Trump Administration will be more hawkish and show scrutiny around Musk related U.S. government spending related to Tesla/SpaceX and most importantly the autonomous future with the regulatory environment key to the future of Robotaxis and Cybercabs."
Tesla stock dropped 5.3% to 300.71 during Tuesday's stock market, after declining 1.8% on Monday.
Musk, who previously sparred with Trump over the bill in early June, on Saturday took to his social media platform on X to rip the Senate version of the Trump budget bill.
"The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future," Musk wrote.
Trump Threatens Musk's Government Contracts
On Monday, the Tesla head upped his online rhetoric, threatening to support primary challengers for "every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history."
"They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth," Musk wrote Monday.
Musk also wrote that the U.S. needs a viable third party option and that "if this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day."
Trump responded early Tuesday on Truth Social, his own social media platform.
"Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV mandate," Trump wrote.
"Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!" Trump said.
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The president, speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, said "I don't know" when asked if he would deport Musk.
"We'll have to take a look," he said.
Ives added Tuesday that Tesla investors "want Musk to focus on driving Tesla and stop this political angle" which has "turned into a life of its own in a roller coaster ride since the November elections."
"At the end of the day being on Trump's bad side will not turn out well," Ives wrote. "And Musk knows this and Tesla investors want this back and forth to end."
Deliveries Report Comes Next Week
Meanwhile, as the feud between Musk and Trump has picked up steam, Tesla is set to report Q2 report global second-quarter vehicle delivery and production data on Wednesday.
The current consensus has Tesla vehicle deliveries of 387,180, which is 13% below a year ago but about 15% above the Q1 total, according to FactSet. However, since the beginning of June analyst delivery forecasts have ranged from 342,000 to 404,000.
Troy Teslike, whose Tesla delivery tracking is highly regarded among retail Tesla stock investors, posted to X on Monday his Q2 estimate of 356,000 vehicle deliveries.
Tesla delivered 336,681 EVs in the seasonally slow Q1 and 443,956 in Q2 2024.
JPMorgan analysts on Monday wrote that Tesla vehicle deliveries come to "just" 360,000 vehicles in Q2 and that there is "material risk" to the outlook for full-year deliveries.
UBS analysts last week estimated that Tesla's Q2 vehicle sales will total 366,000 as demand is expected to remain challenging. The analysts noted that while quarter may not look great, the second-quarter earnings call is an opportunity for Musk "to focus on his future vision."
At the end of last year, when Tesla predicted 20%-30% EV delivery growth in 2025, the Q2 consensus was 502,000.
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Tesla new car sales in Europe declined for the fifth straight month. The EV giant sold 13,863 cars in May in the European Union, the U.K. and the European Free Trade Association combined. New car registrations in the region declined 27.9% annually.
U.S. sales of Tesla vehicles in the U.S. fell 16% in April, according to recently released data from S&P Global Mobility. Meanwhile, through the first five months of 2025, Tesla vehicle sales in China's domestic market have fallen nearly 8% compared with the same period in 2024, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
For the full year, analysts expect Tesla to deliver 1.68 million vehicles, down 5.6% compared to 2024, according to FactSet.
How Tesla Stock Is Responding To The Robotaxi Launch
Forbes reported Thursday that Musk has fired Omead Afshar, Tesla's head of operations in North America and Europe. Afshar began at Tesla in 2011 and, during his tenure, reportedly became one of Musk's top lieutenants and most trusted allies.
In a May 20 interview at Bloomberg's Qatar Economic Forum in Abu Dhabi, Musk said Tesla was not having any demand issues.
"We've lost some sales perhaps on the left but we've gained them on the right," Musk said, referring to left-wing and right-wing consumers. "The sales numbers at this point are strong and we see no problem with demand."
"Our stock wouldn't be trading near all-time highs if things weren't in good shape, they're fine, don't worry about it," Musk added at the time when TSLA shares were 29% below the all-time high of 488.54.
Tesla Stock Performance
TSLA surged 8.2% on June 23 following the limited robotaxi service launch in Austin, Texas. However, Tesla stock has since erased those gains before closing with a 0.5% uptick last week to 323.79.
TSLA stock could be building a short base within a much-bigger consolidation, according to MarketSurge charts. At Tuesday's stock market close, shares are back below the 21-day exponential moving average, 200-day moving average and the 50-day moving average.
Investors could find aggressive entries, but there's currently no clear buy point.
As of Tuesday's stock market close, Tesla stock has moved 26% higher on robotaxi bets following the April 22 Q1 conference call. Shares are down about 25% for the year, and 38% below their all-time high of 488.54.
Tesla stock has a 21-day average true range of 5.69%. The ATR metric, available on IBD's MarketSurge charting tool, gauges the characteristic breadth of a stock's behavior. Stocks that tend to make large jumps or dives in daily stock market action, the kind that can trigger sell rules and shake investors out of a stock, have a high ATR. Stocks that tend to make more incremental moves have lower ATRs.
Investors can keep tabs on the IBD Leaderboard watchlist, the IBD 50 list of top growth stocks and IBD SwingTrader along with the IBD Sector Leaders list.
Tesla stock has a 69 Composite Rating out of a best-possible 99. The stock also has an 84 Relative Strength Rating and a 59 EPS Rating.
Please follow Kit Norton on X @KitNorton for more coverage.
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