Ever since President Donald Trump took office after his reelection last year, it’s seemed as if he’d acquired a new bestie: Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
When Musk was hired as a special government employee and tasked with running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), it was obvious that the president and the world’s richest man were planning to do big things together.
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Musk’s work with DOGE ticked away for roughly five months, but sputtered in April when Tesla announced its Q1 earnings. Tesla’s net profit took a 71% nosedive, leading Musk to announce in May that he would refocus on Tesla.
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By the end of May, Musk announced he would leave DOGE, although it would continue to operate in his absence. Not long after the departure, Musk started to criticize Trump’s “big beautiful bill” openly on X, saying it contains “the largest increase in the debt ceiling in U.S. history.”
This quickly escalated into a social media war, with Trump threatening to sell his Tesla and cancel all of Musk’s government contracts, and Musk saying SpaceX would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately, which will play a crucial role in NASA’s space operations.
Watching it all go down has alarmed many a Tesla investor over the last week, but one expert voice thinks that the clash is nothing to be worried about.
“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary has some thoughts on the Tesla CEO’s big feud with Trump.
Image source: Flickr/Randstad Canada/Shutterstock
Kevin O’Leary’s advice on the Musk-Trump feud
“Shark Tank” star and high-profile investor Kevin O’Leary posted to X on the morning of June 6 about the Musk-Trump battle, encouraging fellow Tesla bulls to keep the faith.
“Elon Musk is a unique individual,” O’Leary wrote. “Think about the achievements he’s made and all of the different industries he’s involved in that express the technical might of America. Trump wants to be close to that.”
“I keep saying this about Trump, and I say this about Elon Musk. Ignore the noise. Focus on the signal. It’s not easy to do in the world we live in.”
O’Leary went on to stress that the feud should not shake Tesla investors.
“I’m an investor. I don’t care about noise. I don’t care about the, the tiff these two are having right now. It’s irrelevant. I focus on the signal. Do I stay long Tesla? Yes.”
O’Leary further addressed the spat in a second post shared a few hours later, saying, “If you go back to Trump’s first term and even in the second term, the number of people in the inner circle, it’s very volatile. People come, people go. It’s kind of like a rotation. You get too close to the sun, your wings melt, and you fall out. It’s not the end of the free world as we know it.”
The millionaire’s prediction is that all this is going to pass.
“I actually think these two men will get back together again,” O’Leary said. “I know it’s salacious, it’s really an interesting story, but at the end of the day, they both have attributes that the other wants.”
The impact of the spat on Tesla stock
While Tesla stock has seen a dip over the last few days due to the public feud, O’Leary also advises that the clash has nothing to do with the strength of the stock.
“If you own Tesla stock like I do, you’re already used to the chaos,” he said in a third post on June 5.
“This company doesn’t just move with earnings — it moves with Elon’s tweets. One post and the stock can swing 10%. But here’s the deal… Volatility doesn’t scare me — it’s part of the price you pay for growth. Tesla isn’t just a car company. It’s a bet on the future: EVs, robotics, autonomous driving. If you believe in the tech, you hold the stock.”
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