The board of the publicly-traded EV company technically works for its shareholders and because of that share price, it has allowed Musk to smoke pot on a podcast, thumb his nose at securities regulators, juggle multiple outside business interests, sell Tesla stock to buy Twitter, become President Trump’s “first buddy,” spend lots of time tweeting, and now — maybe —to start a new political party.

I say “maybe” because Elon’s latest side hustle could be where he’s gone too far, corporate governance experts and investors tell On The Money.

Elon’s latest side hustle could be where he’s gone too far, corporate governance experts and investors say. Jack Forbes / NY Post Design

Elon says he wants to start a new political party dedicated (at least according to a reading of his social media feed) to fiscal discipline, which he believes is missing from the two major parties that currently exist. This latest venture comes after he spent time and millions of dollars getting Donald Trump elected president, working in the White House in its cost-cutting efforts known as DOGE, then famously falling out with Trump over the president’s failure to deliver meaningful cuts in his “Big Beautiful Budget” that still produces a $2 trillion-plus annual deficit.

On The Money will leave the merits of his Trumpian tensions and the need for a third-party dedicated to reigning in our obviously perilous fiscal largesse for another column and will instead focus on whether Musk’s latest foray could land him in legal peril.

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The answer according to these people is yes. Finally, Musk might have to conform to some semblance of what is generally regarded as normal behavior for a CEO running a public company.

I know what you’re saying, why is starting a political party worse than everything else Musk has done? And why would a board known for its acquiescences to an imperial CEO finally grow a pair and exert its legal responsibility as fiduciaries for shareholders?

Recall Musk’s prior antics were taking place while Tesla’s shares were exploding in value, beating every metric as the EV car company became a symbol of the future for transportation. Tesla, from an operational standpoint, looked like a well-oiled machine, hitting its production targets and growing profits.

Trump and Musk sit in a Tesla at the White House in March. AFP via Getty Images

That was before Musk joined the Trump White House and became a political target, dragging Tesla along with him. The radical left vandalized Tesla dealerships, which is a law enforcement matter. The real problem was that Musk alienated Tesla customers, much of them left-leaning environmentalists who ride EVs as a political statement, and profits nosedived.

While Musk was spending so much time in the White House, Tesla has been missing delivery targets; it’s placing a big bet on autonomous cars, but that could deprive its staple EV of much needed R&D. The Big Beautiful Bill cuts EV subsidies, which Trump believes is at the heart of their feud, but now that their relationship keeps souring, Tesla could lose other forms of government support.

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Since the beginning of the year, shares are down around 20%; the S&P is up about 7%. All of which is putting pressure on Tesla’s board to intervene and set some ground rules on Musk starting a new political party, On The Money has learned.

Veteran tech analyst Dan Ives, a long-time Tesla bull, expects exactly that at the next company shareholder meeting scheduled for November after what appeared to be a long delay that prompted more investor backlash. Ives points out that Musk does have significant control of the company since he’s the largest individual shareholder.

But that doesn’t make him immune from shareholder pressure, and fiduciary responsibility that should be enforced by his board given all of the above, or they too could be on the hook for civil litigation and possible violations of securities laws by not creating some shareholder-friendly behavioral boundaries for their CEO.

It’s unclear, Ives says, whether this will preclude Musk from his third-party idea, but he says he expects the board to impose more “oversight…to make sure Musk does his homework assignment.”

The post Tesla’s feckless board needs to rein in Elon Musk before it’s too late appeared first on Our Story Insight.

“It’s actually disadvantageous for me to be in the government, not advantageous,” the Department of Government Efficiency honcho, 53, argued during an interview with Fox News “Special Report” host Bret Baier.

“If I wasn’t in the government, I could lobby and I could push for things that are advantageous to my companies, and probably get it – probably receive them,” the SpaceX, Tesla and Neuralink founder explained. 

Musk argued that his job as DOGE chief hasn’t been good for business. FOX News

“My companies are suffering because I’m in the government,” he said, pointing to the recent spate of attacks targeting Tesla vehicle owners, dealerships and charging stations. 

“Do you think it helps sales if, you know, dealerships are being fire bombed? Of course, not.” 

The Trump administration official and tech tycoon then turned his attention to Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who mocked Tesla’s falling stock price during an event in Wisconsin last week. 

“I mean, you have Tim Walz, who’s a huge jerk, you know, running around on stage with the Tesla stock price, where the stock price had gone in half, and he was overjoyed,” Musk said. “What an evil thing to do. What a creep. What a jerk.”

“Like, who derives joy from that?”

Walz, former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, claimed that he was joking when he said that watching Tesla’s stock price plummet gives him “a little boost during the day.”

“Does that sound like a good person to you? I don’t think so,” Musk said of the governor. 

When asked about what keeps him up at night, the father of 13 said it was the world’s declining birth rates, among other issues. 

“The birth rate is very low in almost every country, and unless that changes, civilization will disappear,” Musk said. “America had the lowest birth rate, I believe, ever — that was last year … and nothing seems to be turning that around.”

“Humanity is dying, and people — it’s just not something we’ve evolved to react to.” 

Musk said declining birth rates in countries around the world, including the US, keep him up at night. FOX News

Musk also expressed concern about “the strength of America.”

“America is the central column that holds up all of Western civilization,” he said. “If that column fails, it’s all over.” 

The DOGE chief also revealed what “basic level” changes President Trump’s cost-cutting initiative has made to the federal government that will survive beyond the commander in chief’s term in office. 

“We certainly would like a lot of what we’re doing to be permanently enshrined” via congressional action, Musk explained, adding, “but a lot of the changes we’re making are very basic things that I think are likely to remain in place, such as the improvements to the Treasury financial system.” 

Musk’s team at the Treasury Department has helped implement a mandatory code system for government payments that allows congressional appropriations to be tracked and requires agencies to explain what they’re spending taxpayer money on.  

“So we made those changes to the system. They weren’t there before. I think those changes will remain,” Musk mused. 

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After climbing into a Tesla Model S last week, President Trump pledged to buy one. The next day, the Fox News host Sean Hannity said he had bought a Model S Plaid to support the embattled company, saying a Tesla “has more American parts in it than any other car made in our country.”

In a backlash to the backlash against the tactics of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, prominent conservatives are rallying to the side of the electric car company led by Mr. Musk. They are hoping to swing enough like-minded consumers to offset a boycott of the electric automaker by liberals and Democrats or anyone offended by Mr. Musk’s actions.

But how effective can such a rescue mission be? Analysts say it can help but only to an extent.

So many Democratic buyers appear to be fleeing Tesla that even Mr. Trump’s best sales pitch is unlikely to woo enough new customers to fill the vacuum, auto experts said. Analysts at JPMorgan predict Tesla will deliver its fewest cars in the first quarter than it had in three years.

“When you make your product unattractive to half the market, I promise you, you won’t increase your sales,” said Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision, an automotive research and consulting firm.

Mr. Edwards has been surveying car buyers for decades. Since 2016, the surveys have found that electric-car owners were up to four times as likely to identify as Democrats or liberals as to identify as Republican or conservative. Among Tesla owners, the spread was consistently two to one.

The gap narrowed sharply through 2024. This year, as sales have fallen, slightly more Tesla buyers identify as Republicans than Democrats, at 30 percent versus 29 percent.

“Democrats are fleeing the brand and saying they won’t consider it in the future, so there is naturally a greater proportion of Republican and independent buyers,” Mr. Edwards said.

He said Democrats first started losing interest in Tesla when Mr. Musk bought Twitter, now X, in 2022. Then, last July, when Mr. Musk publicly backed Mr. Trump, the share of Democrats who said they would “definitely consider” a Tesla fell by half.

Overall, about 8 percent of car owners would now definitely consider a Tesla, according to Mr. Edwards’s surveys. That compares with 22 percent five years ago, when Tesla often topped rankings of luxury brands that buyers would consider.

Tesla’s slipping sales, he said, “are mostly, if not completely, attributed to the statements and behavior of Elon Musk.”

The automaker did not respond to a request for comment.

Tesla remains America’s best-selling electric vehicle brand by far with about 44 percent of the market, despite a 5.6 percent drop in U.S. sales, to about 634,000 cars in 2024, according to Kelley Blue Book. Many drivers are determined to stick with the electric vehicle pioneer, whose cars can travel several hundred miles on a charge and can be easily refueled at the company’s extensive charging network.

Josh Anders, 44, traded a gasoline-powered sport utility vehicle for a Tesla Model 3 in 2019. A resident of Fort Wayne, Ind., he was blown away by the car’s energy efficiency, technology and limited maintenance needs. He soon traded for another, and is about to take delivery of the latest Model Y S.U.V.

“Owning a Tesla was one of the best decisions I ever made, and I’m sticking by it,” Mr. Anders said. “I would love a Rivian R1S, but I can’t afford it. I’m a tech guy, and I love all the features and innovations.”

Mr. Anders, a father of four and creative director of a Christian nonprofit music and arts organization, said he leans conservative, and is uncomfortable with boycotts.

“Elon’s not perfect, and Tesla’s not perfect, but it’s a community of dreamers and doers. I appreciate a brand that’s constantly pushing the boundaries,” he said. “I don’t need every company to share my beliefs. I just need them to share a commitment to progress.”

Still, cars have a long history of becoming part of the political fray.

The Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid introduced in 2011 after General Motors received federal government assistance, was derided by some conservatives as the “Obamacar.” The fuel-sipping Toyota Prius and the gas-guzzling Hummer from G.M. were often lauded and attacked by people on opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Isaac Seliger, a business owner and grant writer in Scottsdale, Ariz., said he’d had little interest in electric vehicles even though his son, who died recently, was a devoted fan of Tesla.

Now, said Mr. Seliger, who described himself as politically independent, he is determined to buy a Tesla, because he wants to defy groupthink and polarization. A friend told him that she would stop speaking to him if he did.

“As a former lefty and antiwar guy, this all makes me want to buy a Tesla more,” Mr. Seliger, 73, said. “I’ll absolutely be making a political statement. But if I bought a Porsche Macan, that’s a statement, too, where people pigeonhole you as an obnoxious older Porsche driver.”

Mr. Seliger added that he found criticisms of Mr. Musk overblown.

“So Elon was a hero of the left, and now he’s a Nazi? That’s just crazy,” he said. “He strikes me as a smart guy who makes great stuff.”

To many people who have faith in Tesla and Mr. Musk, the company’s sales and stock price, which is down about 48 percent from a December high, will eventually recover. The stock was up 12 percent over the last four days of trading.

But some automotive experts say Tesla may struggle because the company has not regularly updated its cars or introduced new models. In addition, the company’s chargers, which once could be used only by Teslas, are opening access to nearly every major competitor, said Loren McDonald, chief analyst at Paren, an electric vehicle charging data firm. And other automakers are offering new electric models, often with notably affordable monthly payments.

“He’s rapidly losing the advantages in range, tech, value and convenience that drove people to Tesla,” Mr. McDonald said. “For a lot of people, it’s time to move on and try something new.”

Of course, most buyers don’t choose cars based on politics. But a brand’s image matters. Tesla sales slipped even as overall U.S. electric vehicle sales grew 7.3 percent in 2024, to 1.3 million. Mr. Edwards said Mr. Musk was making it too easy for people to shop elsewhere.

“People can love their Hyundai, G.M., Rivian or BMW just as much,” he said.

Republicans certainly buy electric cars, but fewer of them have made the plunge to fully electric models. Rural states, where Republicans outnumber Democrats, have fewer chargers than more urban states. Strategic Vision data shows Republicans are more likely to work outside the home, and are less willing to put up with inconveniences like long charging stops. And a 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that more Republicans than Democrats say electric vehicles cost too much and are less reliable than gasoline cars.

In the New York metropolitan area, the nation’s largest car market, new Tesla registrations fell 13 percent, to 47,000 cars, in 2024, according to S&P Global Mobility. That same year, more than 101,000 people registered a Tesla in Los Angeles, the second-largest market, a drop of 8 percent. Still, nearly one in eight new cars in Los Angeles was a Tesla. In the San Francisco Bay Area, where Tesla was founded, nearly one in five new cars was a Tesla. But sales tumbled 17 percent to 54,000 cars.

Consumers in the Houston area bought 12,000 Teslas. But Bay Area residents bought 4.5 times as many Teslas, in a smaller market for new cars overall. Some areas saw big increases, including Miami-Fort Lauderdale where sales jumped 32 percent, to nearly 23,000 cars, in 2024. Tesla sales also rose sharply in Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and St. Louis. But the company’s gains in these places could not offset steeper declines in larger, more liberal metro areas.

Experts say wealthy conservatives such as Mr. Hannity and Mr. Trump have the disposable income to make a personal automotive statement by opting for a Tesla. But they may not be able to persuade Americans of more modest means.

Mr. McDonald also noted that Mr. Trump and other conservatives had spent years vilifying electric cars, mocking climate change and criticizing former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s climate and auto policies.

“The messaging is inconsistent,” Mr. McDonald said. “Is the guy in Arkansas who drives a Ram pickup going to buy a Tesla now? How far can you go against your own beliefs to support Elon Musk?”

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