Tesla's troubles began before Musk donned the MAGA cap

Musk's association with Trump politics has only added to its woes

- Liam Denning

Tesla reported abysmal numbers for the first quarter last week. Naturally, CEO Elon Musk kicked off the call with a discussion on why he must fix America's finances, facing down an army of alleged moochers.

For any other company's stock, the combination of these results with Musk's political priorities would spell doom. The closely watched metric of Tesla's automotive gross margin, after stripping out sales of regulatory credits, slumped to 12.5%; the lowest, according to Morgan Stanley, in over a decade, when Tesla was still more of a startup.

Adjusted earnings came in almost 40% below a consensus forecast that had been nosediving anyway. Tesla eked out positive free cash flow, but only through a combination of favorable moves in accounts payables and receivables, and by slashing capital expenditure almost in half.

To cap it all off, the electric-vehicle (EV) maker suspended guidance due to the recent "shifting global trade policy" that you may have heard about.

There is a double irony here. First, Musk has had a fairly tight relationship with the US president doing much of that shifting. Second, Tesla's guidance was hardly the brightest of beacons, somehow marrying volatility and vagueness in recent quarters.

Hence, as of writing this, after-hours trading has Tesla's stock... up almost 5%.