It can be hard not to post about politics. Even for Elon Musk.
The Tesla (TSLA) CEO over the weekend expressed criticism of the taxation-and-spending bill that’s working its way through Congress on X, the same social-media platform on which his comments on the legislation, among other things, sparked a firestorm earlier this month.
Things were different this time. Musk focused on specific aspects of the legislation, attacking segments he says damage the U.S. position in alternative energy. He didn’t name-check President Donald Trump. And he eschewed threats of political action and statements of a personal nature regarding Trump or anyone else. (He did, however, say the legislation amounted to “political suicide for the Republican Party.”)
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country,” Musk wrote on Saturday. “Utterly insane and destructive.”
Musk’s statements in early June led to a multiple-day news cycle of back-and-forth between Musk and Trump; Musk eventually said some of his messages “went too far.” The reaction this time has been muted by comparison, and Trump in a Sunday interview called Musk a “wonderful guy.”
Shares of Tesla, meanwhile, plummeted the first time around before eventually recovering. They’re down Monday, but far less significantly. Wall Street analysts were obligated to address the first messages after Tesla lost $150 billion of market value in a day, but they’ve largely chosen not to weigh in this time.
This week is expected to bring closely watched monthly deliveries data for Tesla—Wall Street expects June numbers a bit below 400,000, down year-over-year, which comes at a time when Musk might prefer attention to the rollout of its robotaxi operation.
Bulls feel the same way. “All that matters for shares of TSLA over the next six months is the pace of the Robotaxi rollout,” Deepwater Capital Management wrote in a Saturday newsletter.
Still, there’s wariness out there. William Blair’s analysts have a sum-of-the-parts “fair value” price for Tesla stock around $357, above the Visible Alpha mean of around $306 but lower than Street highs, and in a note published Monday suggested that investors “use bumps along the road tactically.”
“The counterbalance to the robotaxi opportunity is a challenging environment for the core businesses today,” they wrote, “In sum, despite some crosswinds, we believe the launch of robotaxi keeps momentum at Tesla’s back.”