Why Trump’s bizarre Tesla endorsement could backfire for Musk

Donald Trump’s bizarre publicity stunt for Tesla – the electric vehicle company owned by his close aide and political donor, Elon Musk – saw him test out five new vehicles on the White House lawn.

After calling the cars “beautiful” and remarking that “everything’s computer”, Trump criticised Democrats for trying to “illegally” boycott the company and pledged to buy “a brand-new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”

Tesla’s share price has plummeted in recent weeks. Wall Street recorded its biggest drop of the year on Monday amid uncertainty over Trump’s tariff policies and his refusal to rule out a recession.

But after the President’s intervention, it’s billionaire owner was rewarded with a small Trump bump – Tesla stock closed higher on Tuesday after plunging a day earlier.

Trump is no stranger to endorsing products on the job. In 2020, the then-President shared a photograph of himself with an array of food from company Goya on the table of the Oval Office, prompting widespread criticism, and his daughter Ivanka – a presidential adviser at the time – also posed with a Goya tin and their slogan.

Goya’s chief executive had endorsed Trump and later said he had been the rightful winner of the 2020 election, despite all evidence showing that Joe Biden fairly won the vote.

Trump’s endorsements ‘could violate public office laws’

At the time, Walter Shaub, a former director of the US Office of Government Ethics, said Ivanka Trump’s Goya post was “clearly a violation of the government’s misuse of position regulation”.

A White House spokesperson said at the time that Trump had been expressing her “personal support” for Goya.

One expert said she feared that endorsement of Goya – and now of Tesla – could violate ethics rules, which prohibit federal employees from using public office to endorse products or bolster personal business interests.

While it may not be his first endorsement, Professor Natasha Lindstaedt, an expert in democracy at the University of Essex, said the behaviour “isn’t normal at all”.

“There’s nothing about this that is normal, because presidents and other elected members of office, they have to adhere to really strict ethical norms,” she said.

“Trump has always flouted these ethical norms, trying promote his watches, on the campaign trail. [The Tesla promotion] could violate the US Code of Federal Regulations section 2635.702, which prohibits federal employees from using public office for private gain or to endorse products.”

“He also said that boycotting Tesla is illegal, but that’s not true. He’s not supposed to be doing or saying things that’s going to affect the stock prices of Tesla.”

But Trump has been emboldened by the lack of repercussions for his endorsement of Goya in 2020, Lindstaedt said – and by a landmark Supreme Court ruling which said that presidents could not be held accountable for crimes committed as part of “official” business while in office.

“We’re so used to him flouting ethical norms and undermining democratic institutions, undermining the rule of law, and nothing has really happened,” Lindstaedt said. “I’m sure he’ll continue to do this.”

When asked for comment, White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields told The i Paper: “President Trump made the personal decision to buy a Tesla, at a market rate.”

Trump’s Tesla backing ‘a double-edged sword’

John Canavan, the lead analyst at economic advisory firm Oxford Economics, said that Wednesday’s uptick in Tesla’s share price could be more to do with broader market stability than the stunt itself – and that the company’s relationship with Trump was a “double-edged sword.”

“It does give Elon Musk the ear of the President, and does allow Elon Musk to ensure that some of the things that have helped to support Tesla – like a lot of the government incentives that have been provided to Tesla to to support the share price over the years will continue – but at the same time, it obviously turns off a lot of investors,” he said.

“It turns off a lot of potential car buyers. So it’s really a mixed bag. I do think that the recent price action has had a lot to do with the broader overall direction of the market.”

Canavan said that while the stunt was “obviously unusual”, it might also be the start of a “new normal”.

“It’s clear that President Trump will pick and choose who he believes should be winners. And so this is what we’re seeing with the Elon Musk. So it has not historically been the case, but it’s also not an especially surprising situation, given given the overall direction of Trump policies and Trump actions.”

Would other companies be perturbed that Musk’s firm is getting endorsement and not theirs?

“The longer term outlook for any individual company is is certainly less dependent on the President’s good graces than on the strength of the overall economy,” Canvan said.

“I don’t think that investors are overly worried about whether or not they have a presidential endorsement. Obviously, President Trump does like to strike out at anyone who pushes back against him, but… the broader concern is what’s going to happen with the overall economy, as opposed to any near term ebbs and flows of the President’s good graces.”

Maga ‘won’t save Tesla’

Tesla has been subjected to vandalism and boycotts in recent weeks as a result of Musk’s association with Trump, and its share price has plummeted 45 per cent since the start of 2025.

Sian Rees, Professor of Public Relations and Marketing at Swansea University, said that Trump was attempting to trying to “mitigate any potential negativity arising from the association” – but that it might be too late.

“The danger for Tesla is that the association with Trump only works for Trump supporters and by creating a photo-stunt which underlines the association, it magnifies the reaction of those who do not support Trump, and by association will not support Tesla.

“Whilst this might encourage some sales in the US from Trump supporters, it is unlikely to rescue the downturn in sales for Tesla in overseas”.

Professor Rees said that while it was “unusual for a premier in a Western democracy to very clearly demonstrate support for one particular commercial organisation over others”, Trump was “not a typical democratic leader” and “not afraid to use blatant PR and marketing techniques.”

Lindstaedt warned that as some of Tesla’s clientele switched off from the firm, Trump supporters may not be inclined to fill the gap.

“Elon Musk used to be a darling of the environmental movement, and that was one of the reasons people would be buying Tesla. As he’s turned very dark… people don’t want to buy it anymore,” she said.

“Many Maga supporters aren’t on board with electric vehicles, so they’re not going to start buying Teslas. Plus, Musk is nowhere near as popular in MAGA world as Trump is, so I don’t think it’s going to make much of a difference.”