Elon Musk’s polarizing political actions since acquiring Twitter, later rebranded X, in 2022 dramatically hurt the automaker’s U.S. sales, underscoring how deeply its fortunes are intertwined with the billionaire’s persona.

The findings quantify for the first time how the political actions of the world’s wealthiest person – including his role in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration – may have cost Tesla billions in lost vehicle sales while benefiting rival electric carmakers.

Tesla’s U.S. sales would have been between 67% and 83% higher, or about 1 million to 1.26 million additional vehicles, from October 2022 to April 2025, had it not been for what researchers call the “Musk partisan effect,” according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research by Yale University economists.

    • moakley@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The fact that he was still given a position in the White House after he explicitly outed himself as a Nazi is really telling.

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Technically, at least according to the court records and the admins defense, Elon Musk never had a real position.

        But yes, he spent way too fucking much time at the white house.