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Will Musk’s explosive row with Trump help or harm his businesses?

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When Elon Musk recently announced that he was stepping back from politics, investors hoped that would mean he would step up his involvement in the many tech firms he runs.

His explosive row with President Donald Trump – and the very public airing of his dirty White House laundry – suggests Musk’s changing priorities might not quite be the salve they had been hoping for.

Instead of Musk retreating somewhat from the public eye and focusing on boosting the fortunes of Tesla and his other enterprises, he now finds himself being threatened with a boycott from one of his main customers – Trump’s federal government.

Tesla shares were sent into freefall on Thursday – falling 14% – as he sounded off about President Donald Trump on social media.

They rebounded a little on Friday following some indications tempers were cooling.

Even so, for the investors and analysts who, for months, had made clear they wanted Musk off his phone and back at work, the situation is far from ideal.

‘They’re way behind’

Some though argue the problems for Musk’s businesses run much deeper than this spat – and the controversial role in the Trump administration it has brought a spectacular end to.

For veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher, that is especially so for Tesla.

“Tesla’s finished,” she told the BBC on the sidelines of the San Francisco Media Summit early this week.

“It was a great car company. They could compete in the autonomous taxi space but they’re way behind.”

Getty Images Musk and Trump standing in front of a red Tesla
Trump is now threatening to sell the Tesla he recently bought from Musk

Tesla has long attempted to play catch-up against rival Waymo, owned by Google-parent Alphabet, whose driverless taxis have traversed the streets of San Francisco for years – and now operate in several more cities.

This month, Musk is supposed to be overseeing Tesla’s launch of a batch of autonomous robo-taxis in Austin, Texas.

He posted to X last week that the electric vehicle maker had been testing the Model Y with no drivers on board.

“I believe 90% of the future value of Tesla is going to be autonomous and robotics,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told the BBC this week, adding that the Austin launch would be “a watershed moment”.

“The first task at hand is ensuring the autonomous vision gets off to a phenomenal start,” Ives added.

But with Musk’s attention divided, the project’s odds of success would appear to have lengthened.

And there’s something else to factor in too: Musk’s own motivation.

The talk in Silicon Valley lately centres less on whether Musk can turn things around and more on whether he even cares.

“He’s a really powerful person when he’s focused on something,” said Ross Gerber, President and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management.

“Before, it was about proving to the world that he would make EVs – the tech that nobody else could do. It was about proving he could make rockets. He had a lot to prove.”

A longtime Tesla investor, Gerber has soured on the stock, and has been paring back his holdings since Musk’s foray into right-wing politics. He called Thursday an “extremely painful day.”

“It’s the dumbest thing you could possibly do to think that you have more power than the president of the United States,” Gerber said, referring to Musk’s social media tirade against Trump.

The BBC contacted X, Tesla, and SpaceX seeking comment from Mr Musk but did not receive a response.

The Tesla takedown

A particular problem for Musk is that, before he seemingly created an enemy in Donald Trump, he already had one in the grassroots social media campaign against his car-maker.

Protests, dubbed #TeslaTakedown, have played out across the country every weekend since Trump took office.

In April, Tesla reported a 20% drop in car sales for the first three months of the year. Profits plunged more than 70%, and the share price went down with it.

“He should not be deciding the fate of our democracy by disassembling our government piece by piece. It’s not right,” protestor Linda Koistinen told me at a demonstration outside a Berkeley, California Tesla dealership in February.

Koistinen said she wanted to make a “visible stand” against Musk personally.

“Ultimately it’s not about the tech or the Tesla corporation,” said Joan Donovan, a prominent disinformation researcher who co-organized the #TeslaTakedown protests on social media.

“It’s about the way in which the stock of Tesla has been able to be weaponized against the people and it has put Musk in such a position to have an incredible amount of power with no transparency,” Donovan added.

Another aspect of Musk’s empire that has raised the ire of his detractors is X, the social media platform once known as Twitter.

“He bought Twitter so that he had clout and would be able to – at the drop of a hat – reach hundreds of millions of people,” Donovan said.

Getty Images A banner reading "everyone hates Elon" behind a smashed up Tesla
An anti-Musk protest in London

The personal brand

There is another possibility here though.

Could Musk’s high-profile falling out with Trump help rehabilitate him in the eyes of people who turned against him because of his previous closeness to the president?

Patrick Moorhead, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, thinks it could.

“We’re a very forgiving country,” Moorhead says in a telephone interview.

“These things take time,” he acknowledges, but “it’s not unprecedented”.

Swisher likened Musk’s personal brand to that of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates more than two decades ago.

She said Gates was once regarded as “the Darth Vader of Silicon Valley” because of his “arrogant and rude” personality.

Today, despite his flaws, Gates has largely rehabilitated his image.

“He learned. He grew up. People can change,” Swisher told me, even though Musk is “clearly troubled.”

Space exit

The problem for Musk is the future for him and his companies is not just about what he does – but what Trump decides too.

And while Trump needed Musk in the past, not least to help fund his presidential race, it’s not so clear he does now.

Noah Smith, writer of the Noahpinion Substack, said Trump’s highly lucrative foray into cryptocurrencies – as unseemly as it has been – may have freed him from depending on Musk to carry out his will.

“My guess is that this was so he could get out from under Elon,” Smith said.

In Trump’s most menacing comment of the day, he suggested cutting Musk’s government contracts, which have an estimated value of $38 billion.

A significant chunk of that goes to Musk’s rocket company SpaceX – seemingly threatening its future.

However, despite the bluster, Trump’s warning may be a little more hollow than it seems.

That’s because SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ferries people and cargo to the International Space Station where three NASA astronauts are currently posted.

It demonstrates that SpaceX has so entrenched itself in the US space and national security apparatus, that Trump’s threat could be difficult to carry out.

You could make a similar argument about Musk’s internet satellite company, Starlink. Finding an alternative could be easier said than done.

But, if there are limits on what Trump can do, the same is also true of Musk.

In the middle of his row with Trump, he threatened to decommission the Dragon – but it wasn’t long before he was rowing back.

Responding to an X user’s suggestion he that he “cool down” he wrote, “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”

It’s clear Musk and Trump’s friendship is over. It’s less certain their reliance on each other is.

Whatever the future for Musk’s businesses is then, it seems Trump – and his administration’s actions – will continue to have a big say in them

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JAGO: Elect Leaders Who Will Support Vision & Culture of Jopadhola

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Tororo, Uganda | The Prime Minister (Jago) of the Padhola Cultural Institution (TACI) has hailed President Yoweri Museveni for the elevation of Tororo Municipality to city status and the creation of more districts but warned that the success of these plans depends on electing leaders who “are progressive and supportive of our cultural values.”

“This is an election season; let’s elect leaders who are supportive of the cultural institution pillars of unity, peace, and development,” said Jago Richard Josel Obbo in a press release.

Obbo warned that those undermining the TACI and the Jopadhola people’s ideals should be avoided and shunned altogether.

“Let’s equally avoid the tendency of violence as we campaign for our respective candidates,” he cautioned.

Congratulations, Tororo!

Jago Obbo also clarified that the new third district for Tororo, which is yet to be named, will be in Kisoko despite confusion over the matter recently.

“I congratulate the people of Tororo, Bukedi, and Ugandans in general upon the recent achievements we have registered, that is, the elevation of Tororo Municipality to city status and the creation of more districts of Mukuju and Mulanda,” he said.

Jago Obbo said Kisoko has always been the county headquarters of the greater Budama, West Budama, and now the West Budama North and Northeast Counties.

“Kisoko is endowed with vast land that can hold a district headquarters in addition to expanding other developmental activities, as the government may prioritize from time to time. I urge the people of Padhola to be united on this matter and shun those trying to confuse.”

He said that all the consultative meetings with different stakeholders in Tororo, who included the Kwar Adhola, Padhola Elders, Chairpersons LC 3, district leaders, councilors, and members of parliament, agreed and signed a joint memorandum that Kisoko would be the district headquarters.

“The confusion and last-minute change in mind came when one of the leaders who had always been invited for these meetings and never attended rose from the State House and proposed that the district headquarters would be agreed upon later. As leaders, we should avoid serving parochial interests; we cannot be seen to be double-minded and serving selfish interests against the larger masses,” Jago warned.

Schools and Rain

Jago Obbo called on parents in Padhola to endeavor to take all school-going children back to school without exception.

“In case a parent or guardian has financial or requirement challenges, please visit the schools and negotiate with the administration such that the children do not miss out on the academic activities,” he said.

On livelihoods, Obbo said the rains have remained consistent this season. “Let’s continue taking advantage of the rains and plant fast-maturing crops to support our families both at subsistence and commercial levels.”

He revealed that TACI is currently mobilizing all residents of Tororo to embrace government programs, especially immunization of children against malaria.

“I urge all people to send their children right from birth to two years of age for immunization, such that they remain healthy while growing,”.

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