Elon Musk forced back to the boardroom as Doge ‘blowback’ pummels Tesla

In the days following Donald Trump’s victory last November, Elon Musk’s multimillion-dollar foray into electoral politics looked like one of the savviest investments of his career.

Hopes that the entrepreneur’s political influence would supercharge his businesses pushed Tesla back above $1tn in market value, making the richest man in the world — who spent just over a quarter of a billion dollars on Trump’s campaign — roughly $100bn richer.

But, by Musk’s own admission, his allegiance to Trump has instead led to damaging “blowback” for his flagship electric-car maker.

“It went from a Cinderella story to Nightmare on Elm Street,” said Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst who had initially cheered Musk’s closeness to the White House.

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