Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s fallout with President Donald Trump on Thursday resulted in the second-largest wealth loss ever, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
The feud started earlier this week when Musk harshly criticized Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” but it escalated when the president fired back during a White House meeting on Thursday and accused his former adviser of only opposing the legislation because it would eliminate electric vehicle tax credits.
Musk’s very public response on his social media platform X included accusing Trump of “ingratitude” and claiming that his name appeared in the so-called “Epstein files.”
Trump eventually threatened to cancel Musk’s federal contracts, writing on Truth Social: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.”
At the end of it all, Musk’s wealth had suffered an estimated $34 billion hit, according to Bloomberg, just shy of the largest single-day wealth loss, which was also suffered by Musk in November 2021. Despite the massive loss, Musk remains the world’s wealthiest person, with an estimated $334.5 billion fortune.
Tesla, Musk’s electric vehicle company, closed the day down 14.3%, representing an almost $150 billion loss in market value.
From Musk’s perspective, the damage might not be done, according to Bloomberg.
“As big of a loss as Musk took on Thursday, it might not encompass the full hit to his wealth since it doesn’t reflect any damage to the value of his private enterprises — an increasingly important source of his net worth,” the outlet reported.
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