Elon Musk’s fortune fell by a whopping $34 billion during heightened tensions with his ex-US President Donald Trump. The fall reduced Musk’s wealth to $334.5 billion, marking the second-largest drop in wealth in a single day ever recorded by the index.
This huge decline in wealth was brought about as part of Tesla’s stock plummeted by 14%, contributing significantly to the total loss. The decline is attributed to the deepening public feud between Musk and Trump. Since Musk’s wealth is directly connected to his interests in Tesla, SpaceX, and other forays, the market response had a profound effect.
Battle Over Controversial Bill
At the heart of the divide is a planned reconciliation package referred to as the “Big Beautiful Bill” by Donald Trump. The bill was denounced by Musk as a “disgusting abomination” and argued that it would further increase the national deficit. He also implored Republican politicians to reject it.
Trump reacted aggressively, stating he was “very disappointed” with Musk’s stand and implied that the Tesla CEO knew the bill would slash electric vehicle subsidies.
Musk dismissed being allowed to see the bill before it was approved. “It was never presented to me even once and passed in the middle of the night so quickly that nearly no one in Congress was even able to read it!” he wrote on X.
As tensions escalated, Trump vowed to “end Elon’s government subsidies and contracts” and said he had already requested Musk to resign from federal advisory positions. Musk retaliated by releasing a strong statement that he was the reason for Trump’s 2024 election victory.
Musk Still Tops the List
Even after the historic financial loss, the richest individual on earth is still Elon Musk. He is leading by almost $90 billion from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose worth is $241 billion, and is about $105 billion ahead of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, whose current value is $229 billion.
