Yesterday, Tesla’s stock crashed 15% – resulting in a 50% drop from its peak in December.
Last night, Trump posted a message on Truth Social supporting Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and his biggest political donor. In the message, he called the Tesla boycotts “illegal” and he said that he would be buying a Tesla vehicle to show his support for Musk.
He has apparently followed through today, but he went a quite a bit further as he held a press conference in front of Tesla vehicles at the White House:
The President, who has previously shared misinformation about electric vehicles being “unusable,” praised Tesla’s vehicles and said that he would be buying a Model S Plaid.
He is not allowed to drive, so he said that he would let White House staff use the vehicle instead.
The President was photographed with notes that included talking points about Tesla’s pricing and “Full Self-Driving” features:
It falsely claimed that “all cars have self-driving, just needs to be turned on”, which is misleading since Tesla vehicles are incapable of self-driving. They are equipped with a level 2 ADAS system that requires the supervision of a driver at all times, and Tesla takes no responsibility in the case of an accident.
Tesla’s stock (TSLA) rose up 5% on the publicity stunt today, but it closed up 3.8% compared to being down 15% yesterday.
