March 10 (Reuters) – Elon Musk is running his businesses “with great difficulty” while working with the Trump administration, the Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab CEO said on Monday in an interview with Fox Business.
His remarks followed Tesla losing $130 billion in stock market value in a broad selloff on Wall Street that left the electric car maker’s shares at their lowest since October.
Tesla’s (TSLA.O), opens new tab shares slumped 15% to $222.15, weighing heavily on the Nasdaq (.IXIC), opens new tab, which tumbled 4% on fears that the Trump administration’s tariffs against major U.S. trading partners could throw the country into a recession.
The decline in Tesla’s market capitalization on Monday eclipsed the $86 billion combined stock market value of Ford Motor (F.N), opens new tab and General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab.
Monday’s losses evaporated the last of a Tesla rally late last year that nearly doubled its stock following the November 5 election of U.S. President Donald Trump. That surge was fueled by optimism that Tesla would benefit from Musk’s close relationship with Trump.
Investors in Tesla have been concerned that Musk’s work leading the Department of Government Efficiency to slash government expenditure was distracting him from running his companies, which include Tesla, SpaceX, X and xAI.
