Elon Musk, you're in a hole. Stop digging!
Doubling down in his attack on Donald Trump is about as far out as one could go on the risk scale.
The break-up of the wealthiest man on the planet and the world's most powerful is playing out like any romantic split – with cross-court lashings of invective, threats and recriminations. But this divorce is being played out in the public on the combatants-owned social media platforms, X and Truth Social.
And neither man possesses the self-regulation switch that would interrupt an escalation. So BYO popcorn!
Musk can't win, but he can inflict a load of self harm and damage on Tesla shareholders.
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With each breakout in hostilities, the electric carmaker's share price dives – and with it, Musk's wealth. Even without Musk's meltdown, Tesla is already under pressure over a consistent sales slump of its cars and its struggling introduction of robotaxis.
The company is expected to announce a 12 to 13 per cent drop in quarterly sales again this week – a challenge that Musk needs to overcome even before dealing with any further regulatory pain that Trump is capable of inflicting on the company or his other interests, like SpaceX.
The feud escalated into the stratosphere this week when Musk threatened to form a new US political party if Trump's Big Beautiful Bill was passed – which happened on Tuesday US time.
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The tense standoff over the bill included a record-long floor speech by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who spoke for eight hours and 46 minutes, blasting the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would strip low-income Americans of federally-backed health insurance and food aid benefits. US President Donald Trump has signed into law a massive package of tax and spending cuts in a ceremony at the White House, one day after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the signature legislation of Trump's second term. The bill, which will fund Trump's immigration crackdown, make his 2017 tax cuts permanent, and is expected to knock millions of Americans off health insurance, was passed with a 218-214 vote after an emotional debate on the House floor. 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The bill's passage amounts to a big win for Trump and his Republican allies, who have argued it will boost economic growth, while largely dismissing a nonpartisan analysis predicting it will add more than $US3 trillion ($A4.6 trillion) to the nation's $US36.2 trillion ($A55.2 trillion) debt. While some lawmakers in Trump's party expressed concerns over the bill's price tag and its hit to healthcare programs, in the end just two of the House's 220 Republicans voted against it, joining all 212 Democrats in opposition. The tense standoff over the bill included a record-long floor speech by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who spoke for eight hours and 46 minutes, blasting the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would strip low-income Americans of federally-backed health insurance and food aid benefits.
