Scorched Earth Politics: The Illogical Democratic War on Elon Musk and Tesla

By Joe Wallace

APRIL 27, 2025

In an era of deep political polarization, few figures ignite as much controversy as Elon Musk. Once a darling of the left for his visionary leadership in electric vehicles and climate change advocacy, Musk has now become a target of disdain among many Democratic leaders and activists. The shift is not just ideological—it’s deeply personal and economically destructive.

Just last week, former Minnesota Governor and one-time Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz publicly expressed joy over Tesla’s plummeting stock price. In a moment that left many Americans stunned, Walz admitted he uses a phone app to track the losses to Elon Musk’s net worth, smiling quietly to himself each time the valuation drops. This wasn’t policy critique. This was schadenfreude—taking pleasure in someone else’s financial pain.

But here’s the irony: Musk owns only about 12.5% of Tesla. When the stock dropped from a high of $488 to a low of $217 in early 2025—a 56% decline—the market capitalization lost nearly $846 billion. That’s not just a blow to Musk. It’s a blow to millions of investors, including countless ordinary Americans, retirees, and yes, Democratic voters and institutions.

Many of the same progressives now sneering at Tesla’s pain celebrated Musk as a climate change warrior just a few short years ago. He led the electric vehicle revolution, catalyzed an entire industry toward cleaner transportation, and forced the legacy auto giants to follow suit. Tesla’s Gigafactories provided thousands of good-paying jobs and revitalized industrial zones. Yet none of that seems to matter anymore.

Why the sudden turn? The answer lies not in Tesla’s products, but in Musk’s personality—and more importantly, his politics. Since acquiring Twitter (now X), Musk has aligned more vocally with libertarian and center-right views, championing free speech, questioning woke orthodoxy, and challenging Democratic narratives. For some, this political deviation was unforgivable.

But the reaction hasn’t been limited to online criticism or Capitol Hill snubs. It’s turned into something darker—something economically irrational and ethically troubling.

In California, New York, and even Walz’s own Minnesota, public pension funds hold substantial positions in Tesla stock. CalPERS (California Public Employees’ Retirement System) has long held Tesla in its top 100 investments. New York’s Common Retirement Fund and the Minnesota State Board of Investment also have positions in Tesla, directly exposing teachers, firefighters, and government employees to the consequences of these ideological attacks.

By publicly cheering Tesla’s decline, Democratic leaders like Walz are effectively celebrating the erosion of their constituents’ retirement savings. This isn’t a principled stand against corruption or abuse. This is a scorched-earth emotional campaign: “If Musk must suffer, so be it—even if we all suffer with him.”

Meanwhile, the silence from party leadership on acts of vandalism and violence targeting Tesla showrooms and charging stations is deafening. While Republican officials quickly condemn even minor protest-related damage at conservative institutions, there’s been barely a peep from leading Democrats about the increasingly aggressive targeting of Tesla. The implication is clear: if you don’t toe the party line, you’re fair game.

This attitude reeks of hypocrisy. Tesla, for all its controversy, still makes the best-selling EVs in the world. The company’s products are not political. They’re technological marvels that help reduce carbon emissions—a central plank of the Democratic platform. How can the same people who warn about climate catastrophe now gleefully undercut one of the greatest tools we have to fight it?

It’s time to step back from the brink. You don’t have to agree with Elon Musk’s tweets to recognize the value of his work. You don’t have to love the man to condemn violence against his company. And you certainly shouldn’t root for financial destruction when it means torching the very pension funds that support working families.

There is no virtue in vengeance. There is no progress in pain for its own sake. The Democratic Party—and its leaders—must remember that policy disagreements do not justify economic sabotage, especially when the collateral damage is measured in lost retirements and broken public trust.

When public officials cheer Wall Street losses and stay silent on acts of aggression, they betray the very people they claim to represent. It’s time to call this what it is: a dangerous, self-defeating game of political spite. And it needs to stop.