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The electric automaker's stock has more than lost all of its post-Election Day gains. Tesla shares stood at $288.53 on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, and hit an all-time high of around $480 in mid-December before beginning a sharp decline.
By early March, shares fell below what they posted the day after Election Day. Tesla opened for trading at $225.11 on Tuesday, Mar. 11, marking about a 53-percent decline from that record peak.
The drop comes as Musk faces massive backlash for his work as an advisor to President Donald Trump and de facto leader of the Department of Government Efficiency. Trump has tasked DOGE – an organization not approved by Congress – with gutting federal agencies in an effort to reduce spending.
Trump took to his social media platform to defend Musk in a post shortly after midnight on March 11, falsely claiming that it's illegal to demonstrate against Tesla.
"To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is "putting it on the line" in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!" Trump posted. "But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s "baby," in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for."
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during a White House meeting on February 11, 2025.
DOGE's budget cuts have resulted in at least 63,583 layoffs of federal employees and private contractors, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Since the start of 2025, government job losses have skyrocketed 41,311 percent from just 151 cuts in early 2024.
Musk has also been criticized for how he has run Twitter since purchasing the social media platform for $44 billion in October 2022. The website he rebranded as X saw major outages on Monday, Mar. 10, which Musk claimed was caused by cyberattacks.
Tesla has faced growing safety concerns about its vehicles. The company recalled 376,241 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in February, about a month after issuing a recall for 239,382 cars.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is also investigating Tesla's "Actually Smart Summon" system. The federal probe involving more than 2.5 million Tesla vehicles came after reports of crashes caused by the system that allows vehicles to be remotely controlled through a smartphone app.
As Musk's power in the Trump administration has grown, the "Tesla Takedown" movement has helped spark hundreds of protests at Tesla dealerships among other places across North America and Europe.
"Sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines," the group's Action Network page said. "Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk. Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy. The stakes couldn't be higher. No one is coming to save us — not politicians, not the media."
A "Tesla Takedown" protest in Rockville, MD, on March 8, 2025.
Some have gone further, setting Tesla vehicles or chargers on fire. In Littleton, MA, police said they're investigating a suspected arson attack at a Tesla charging station.
Tesla purchases have dropped dramatically around the world, with the company reporting its first global sales dip in 2024, the Associated Press reported. Sales have especially crashed in Germany, where Musk has emphatically supported Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right nationalist political party.
Anti-Musk sentiment especially rose after he appeared to give two Nazi salutes during a speech celebrating Trump's inauguration on Monday, Jan. 20. Musk has denied his outstretched arm was the salute known as a sign of support for fascist leaders like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
While Musk's supporters have defended the gesture, opponents have used the incident to fuel their criticism of Tesla.
"I'm getting Nazi salutes from Subarus," Cybertruck owner Steve Minnick told CNN.
Many Tesla owners – regardless of political beliefs – have taken steps to distance themselves from the volatile brand. Some drivers have purchased anti-Musk bumper stickers, Business Insider reported.
Some common stickers have phrases like "Elon killed my resale value", "Anti Elon Musk Club", and "I Bought This Before We Knew Elon Was Crazy." Other stickers on Etsy say things like "Vintage Tesla Pre-Madness Edition" and "This is my last Tesla."
A Tesla with an anti-Elon Musk bumper sticker.
Other Tesla owners have gone a step further: changing their vehicle's identity. Several social media posts have shown drivers who disguised their vehicles with other automakers' logos.
One Reddit photo went viral after it showed a Cybertruck with "Toyota" written on the tailgate.
"How do you do, fellow trucks?" said one commenter, referencing a "30 Rock" joke when actor Steve Buscemi pretended to be a high school student in a spoof of the movie "21 Jump Street".
"Someone's afraid of getting vandalized," another poster said.
In a video that garnered more than 1.8 million views, electric vehicle TikToker "molesrcool" showed Tesla vehicles disguised as an Audi, a Mazda, and a Honda.
The Tesla Model 3 camouflaged as an Audi even had emblems for the model and engine types.
"There's something going on right now where people don't want to be associated with this brand," he said. "This trend is happening while other people are desperate to get rid of their Teslas but can't."
Some celebrities have been able to sell or donate their unwanted Tesla vehicles.
Most notably, country music star Sheryl Crow posted an Instagram video of her Tesla being hauled away shortly after Trump's election.
"My parents always said... you are who you hang out with," Crow said in the post on Friday, Feb. 14. "There comes a time when you have to decide who you are willing to align with. So long Tesla. Money donated to NPR, which is under threat by President Musk, in hopes that the truth will continue to find its way to those willing to know the truth."
Musk's growing political influence seems to be tarnishing his public perception.
Half of Americans now have an unfavorable view of Musk, according to an NPR/PBS News/Marist College poll released on Monday, Mar. 3. That's compared to 39 percent who had a favorable opinion of him and 11 percent who either had no opinion or never heard of Musk.
DOGE has similarly poor numbers, with 44 percent viewing the organization negatively and 39 percent having a favorable opinion. A majority — 55 percent of Americans, including 61 percent of independents — said DOGE's drastic cuts to federal agencies will do more harm than good.
Trump continues to stand by Musk, politically and financially.
"In any event, I'm going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American," Trump said in his Truth Social post. "Why should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???"
Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk joined the company as an investor in 2004 and became CEO in 2008.
There were 1,773,443 Tesla vehicles produced in 2024, the company said.
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