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Donald Trump has promised to buy a Tesla in a show of support for Elon Musk after shares in the electric-car maker tumbled 15 per cent in a Wall Street sell-off sparked by fears over the US president’s economic policies.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that “Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla.”
Tesla car showrooms across the US were recently targeted by protesters railing against Musk’s swingeing cost-cuts in the federal government and his support for Germany’s far-right.
On Monday night, Trump pledged to buy a “brand new” Tesla on Tuesday morning “as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American”.
Trump has previously said that electric vehicles would result in the “complete obliteration” of the US car industry.
Tesla’s shares fell by 15.4 per cent on the Nasdaq exchange on Monday, leading a powerful sell-off in previously high-flying technology stocks. The automaker’s shares closed at $222.15, down more than 54 per cent from their peak of $488.54 on December 18, according to LSEG.
The Nasdaq Composite index fell 4 per cent, its biggest fall in two-and-a-half years. The S&P 500 index lost 2.7 per cent, after falling 3.1 per cent last week in its worst weekly performance in six months.
Analysts said the falls came on the back of companies’ very high growth expectations, which investors were rapidly re-evaluating in the face of Trump’s aggressive trade policies and falling consumer confidence.
In his Monday night post, Trump said Musk was “putting it on the line” and “doing a FANTASTIC JOB!”
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