Musk's terrible week could be about to get even worse

You’d be forgiven for not noticing amid all the Donald Trumpinduced chaos from the introduction of some of the highest tariffs in more than a century, which triggered stock market plunges not seen since the Covid lockdown.

- JAMES MOORE

But First Buddy Elon Musk has had almost as reputation-crushingly bad a week as his boss.

While Trump was telling reporters that his tariffs plan was going “very well” – as countries lined up to retaliate with their own import taxes, the dollar sank, and the world's largest tech company, Apple, watched as more than $300bn (£230bn) was wiped from its stocks – Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) found out it could face a $1bn fine from the EU for its failure to police disinformation and hate speech.

A messy, and doubtless theatrical court case is the likely result. But Musk could be the first CEO penalised under the EU’s Digital Services Act. His brash embrace of Donald Trump, publicity stunts including a chainsaw-wielding appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and embrace of farright political movements and parties in Europe, have also had a very visible impact on another of his businesses: Tesla.

According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, sales of the marque are going into reverse in what is a rapidly growing market. Tesla’s latest update said it had delivered nearly 337,000 electric vehicles in the first three months of 2025 – a decline of 13 per cent, and much worse than Wall Street had expected.