Elon Musk experienced a staggering $34 billion drop in his net worth on Thursday, June 5, marking one of the largest single-day losses in his personal fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The plunge followed a volatile exchange with former President Donald Trump, sparked by a series of controversial tweets from the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.
Musk had posted claims linking Trump to Jeffrey Epstein and suggested that Trump played a major role in securing the 2024 presidential victory. These accusations triggered immediate backlash from Trump, who threatened to revoke federal contracts with Musk’s companies.
Trump also warned of removing the electric vehicle (EV) tax credit—introduced under President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act—which has been a key financial incentive for Tesla customers, offering up to $7,500 off EV purchases.
In a sharp response to Trump’s threat, Musk declared he would decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in response to Business Insider’s inquiry regarding Musk’s Epstein-related tweet.
“The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
The fallout caused Tesla shares to tumble more than 14%, resulting in an estimated $138 billion loss in market capitalization. Bloomberg estimates that $34 billion of that decline came directly from Musk’s personal holdings.
This is not the first time Musk’s tweets have had financial consequences. In November 2021, he ran a Twitter poll asking if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. Over 57% of 3.5 million participants voted “yes”, leading to a 16% drop in Tesla shares that week and wiping out $50 billion from Musk’s net worth.
