Musk calls Tim Walz a 'jerk' for mocking Tesla's falling stock price

Elon Musk’s reaction to Tim Walz poking fun at Tesla’s plummeting stock price is going viral.

The past few weeks have been extremely challenging for the electric car brand. Shares have fallen 40 per cent since January and dealerships are being attacked amid backlash to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) job cuts for federal employees. On top of this, Ross Gerber, a top Tesla investor, called for Musk, the company’s CEO, to step down.

And now, Minnesota governor Tim Walz is joking about the company’s stock market troubles.

Earlier this month, Walz spoke at a Wisconsin town hall event and spoke about the delight he feels whenever he checks his iPhone’s stock app to watch Tesla stocks drop. He does this for "a little boost during the day."

However, perhaps sensing there would be backlash, Walz addressed his comments at another town hall in Minnesota on 22 March.

“[Musk] bugs me in a way that’s probably unhealthy,” he shared. “I have to be careful about being a smart a**. I was making a joke. These people have no sense of humour. They are the most literal people.”

Tim Walz is not a Tesla fanGetty

He added at the time: “But my point was, they’re all mad, and I said something I probably shouldn’t have about a company.”

Well, the joke has evidently struck a nerve and the tech billionaire is now criticising the Minnesota governor as a "huge jerk" for mocking the company's stock market price plunging.

Musk responded to Walz in a recent Fox interview on Friday (28 March). “My companies are suffering because I'm in the government...do you think it helps sales if dealerships are being firebombed? Of course not.

“I mean, you have Tim Walz, who’s a huge jerk, running around on stage with the Tesla stock price, where the stock price had gone in half, and he was overjoyed.”

“What an evil thing to do—what a creep, what a jerk. Like, who derives joy from that? And it was pointed out to him that the Minnesota state pension fund is a major investor in Tesla, but he didn’t care because he was so overjoyed by the Tesla stock [falling].”

Musk continued: “Does that sound like a good person to you? I don’t think so.”

Addressing the growing reports of vandalism at Tesla dealerships, Musk shared: “Think it would help sales if dealerships are being firebombed? Of course not. And Tesla customers are being intimidated all over the country and all over Europe. Does that help Tesla?”

Musk’s buddy, President Donald Trump, threatened to give jail sentences to people caught vandalising Tesla.

“I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20-year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla,” he wrote on his social platform Truth Social. “Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!”

You should also read:

'Free speech absolutist’ Elon Musk says Trump administration will ‘go after’ people ‘pushing lies’ about Tesla

Tesla owners are facing a new problem amid Elon Musk backlash

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