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.
Any model year 2024+ Tesla needs to be open game for vandalism. The damn things should be uninsurable.
That was happening for a bit early this year, then, I shit you not, they committed resources and personnel to a “Tesla Task Force.” to protect their best boy’s little stonks.
The sad thing is, a majority of victims of this property damage would probably be too smoothbrained to understand why their choice of wagon is controversial.
I remember people on Nextdoor (LOL I know) being like “Why’s this happening people are so mean and hateful :(”
I showed them the famous musk heil photo to explain the phenomenon, and the copium and whattaboutism denial response was insane. “hE’s NoT a NaZi JuSt BcUz U dOnT LiKe HiM nUh-Uh”
(One legit tried the “throwing out his heart” defense LOL)
I was pretty calm and respectful in explaining the situation but the comment got moderated, meanwhile these braindead suburbanites were engaged in a feverish goon session about how people who keyed their cars should literally be killed in response. No intervention whatsoever.
It’s amazing how the bad guys are propped up by untold multitudes of morons who have literally no idea what’s going on about anything. Their sole identity is the things they own, and they’d gladly report their neighbors to ICE for a head pat.
But they would legit be confused as to why they draw ire or retribution with their choices because they “Don’t get involved with politics.”