Tesla and SpaceX lost $420 billion in market cap this week; it didn’t have to be like this

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Many of you will remember that Tesla and SpaceX received major boosts early in their corporate lives from the Obama administration, the Democrat-controlled House, and the Democrat-controlled Senate. There is a strong possibility that these companies would no longer exist today without that initial support. Democrats in California and in the US government were also instrumental in consumer support for electric vehicles, air pollution standards for electric vehicles and carbon credit markets that have generated billions of dollars in revenue for Tesla. Without a doubt, Tesla would not have been able to grow and evolve as it did without all that support, and again, it is questionable whether the company would ever have been profitable and alive today if it had not had that strong support from Democrats. Republicans in power have been unwilling to support electric vehicles, impose stricter pollution limits on gasoline-powered mobile vehicles or demand higher levels of fuel economy from automakers. Every time they have all the power of the United States government, they go in the opposite direction on these things.

Of course, we know that Elon Musk turned politically to the right (towards the extreme, extreme right) after some things happened. Those key things were the following:

• COVID-19 lockdowns — Elon Musk started panicking and going crazy when a) California was locked down at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and wouldn’t allow Tesla to send workers to the factory (Musk also claimed that the virus would be long gone by April 2020 or something, which was a ridiculous and misinformed claim that was very hard to believe at the time), b) Musk was forced to stay home with his kids instead of going to work 80+ hours a week and spending a significant amount of the remaining time partying with friends.
• Become a hugely rich billionaire — Musk absolutely did not want to pay taxes on his extreme wealth after becoming one of the richest people in the world. That’s also reportedly one of the key reasons Tesla moved from California to Texas.
• Your son is trans Initially, Musk had five children, and one of them was trans and became a woman. Musk has had big problems with this, basically saying that the boy is no longer his son and having made a massive anti-trans effort over the last half decade or so.
• Not invited to a press conference. — Joe Biden held an EV event/press conference during his presidency where he did not invite Tesla and also called GM a leader in EVs. The reason Tesla wasn’t invited was because these were union companies and Tesla has been very anti-union (Musk was even convicted by a federal judge of union busting at one point). In my opinion, it was stupid to have such a level and not have Tesla there. However, I also think it’s crazy how much this apparently mattered to Musk and the anti-democratic kick he’s given since.

In general, historically, Democrats have been the ones to push for strong policies in support of the clean technologies that Tesla develops and sells. However, due to the above (as well as a ton of apparent corruption and oligarchic and undemocratic influence), Musk has been one of the main financiers and activists of the Republican Party in the last elections. In the most recent midterm elections, he was the largest single donor in the country, giving at least $447 million to try to get Republicans elected, without any success (well, like 99.99% without success or something).

If Elon Musk had continued with his previous fairly nonpartisan or bipartisan tendencies, who knows what this election would have meant for Tesla (and SpaceX). However, now that he has become the number one Republican donor in the United States and has loaded his social media platform in support of Republicans, one has to wonder how the Democrats who control Congress (and perhaps later the presidency) will respond to the countless attacks Musk has launched against them. It is logical to assume that there will be repercussions. They may not target you unfairly, but they may well choose to investigate and seek punishment for illegal activities, demonstrable corruption, and undemocratic behavior. Instead of this gigantic blue wave being something we could expect aid Tesla, everyone is now wondering if Tesla will face serious consequences.

As a result, Tesla and SpaceX reportedly lost $420 billion (yes, billion) in market cap after the election, ironically. Maybe that value has changed now, but how appropriate that this is the punishment the market is giving Elon Musk for being so politically wrong. For now.