Tesla\u2019s\u00a0fourth-quarter earnings report lands just over a week after\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0began his second term in the White House, with\u00a0Elon Musk\u00a0right by his side.<\/p>\n
Now that the Tesla CEO is firmly planted in Washington, D.C., in a high-profile advisory role, shareholders in the electric vehicle maker have some questions.<\/p>\n
On the\u00a0forum\u00a0Tesla\u00a0uses to solicit investor inquiries in advance of its earnings calls, more than 100 poured in from shareholders about\u00a0Musk\u2019s\u00a0politics, including his official role at Trump\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and his endorsement of far-right candidates.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much time does Elon Musk devote to growing Tesla, solving product issues, and driving shareholder value vs. his public engagements with Trump, DOGE, and political activities?\u201d one retail investor asked, adding, \u201cDo you believe he\u2019s providing Tesla the focus it needs?\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to contributing $270 million to help Trump and other Republican candidates and causes, Musk spent weeks on the campaign trail during the fourth quarter working to propel Trump back into the White House. After Trump\u2019s election victory, Musk then spent considerable time far away from Tesla\u2019s factory floor at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.<\/p>\n
One of the top-voted questions about Musk asked how much time he intends to spend \u201cat the White House and on government activities vs time and effort dedicated to Tesla.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk and Tesla didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Musk has also involved himself in German politics, giving a full-throated\u00a0endorsement\u00a0of the country\u2019s far-right, anti-immigrant party AfD (Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland) in December ahead of the February election.<\/p>\n
According to research and consulting firm Brand Finance, the value of\u00a0Tesla\u2019s\u00a0brand fell\u00a0by 26% last year, with factors including Musk\u2019s\u00a0\u201cantagonism,\u201d Tesla\u2019s aging lineup of EVs and more. The researchers found that fewer consumers would recommend or consider buying a Tesla now than in previous years.<\/p>\n
During public remarks following last week\u2019s inauguration,\u00a0Musk repeatedly used a gesture\u00a0that was viewed by many historians and politicians as a Nazi salute. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, whose scholarship has focused on fascism, described it as \u201ca Nazi salute and a very belligerent one,\u201d while\u00a0neo-Nazis praised\u00a0Musk for his antics.<\/p>\n
A shareholder on Say asked, \u201cWill you apologize for the misunderstanding that occurred when you made the hand gesture thanking folks for their support. It would go a long way with your investors and the American public at large. Thanking you in advance Elon!\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to the criticism, Musk said anyone calling the salute a hateful gesture was pushing a \u201choax.\u201d But after that, he engaged in Nazi-themed word play on X, prompting the Anti-Defamation League to rebuke him, writing it is \u201cinappropriate and offensive to make light\u201d of the \u201csingularly evil\u201d Holocaust. And Musk later appeared via video at a rally for the AfD in Halle, Germany.<\/p>\n
Some investors asked whether Tesla had \u201csales lost due to political activities of Elon,\u201d how the company plans \u201cto respond to Musk\u2019s now infamous Nazi salute,\u201d and how Tesla \u201cis addressing the negative impacts of Elon\u2019s public views and activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Tesla is under no obligation to bring any of these topics up on the earnings call. Ahead of the third-quarter call in October, investors had a lot of\u00a0questions and concerns\u00a0about similar issues regarding Musk\u2019s involvement in politics, though that was before Trump\u2019s election victory.<\/p>\n
Trump was never mentioned on that call.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tesla\u2019s\u00a0fourth-quarter earnings report lands just over a week after\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0began his second term in the White House, with\u00a0Elon Musk\u00a0right by his side. Now that the Tesla CEO is firmly planted in Washington, D.C., in a high-profile advisory role, shareholders in the electric vehicle maker have some questions. On the\u00a0forum\u00a0Tesla\u00a0uses to solicit investor inquiries in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}