MUSK on TRUMP's Bill | "outrageous, disgusting abomination"Elon Musk’s sided against the latest Trump-backed tax-and-spending package, in a plot twist between the recent partners turned enemies.
Musk called the legislation a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill” and a “disgusting abomination,” publicly shaming senators and representatives who backed it.
With such a strong opinion against it one may wonder, is this going to negatively affect Tesla?
Together with this strong reaction, the price has already been trading lower for the past few days.
The administration has defended it as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” insisting it will stimulate growth, even though Elon Musk warned the bill would swell the U.S. budget deficit by roughly $2.3–2.5 trillion over the next decade, calling the added debt “crushingly unsustainable”.
When I first read this, it made me think of Tesla's long generated “green credits”, which in 2024 alone, brought in roughly $2.76 billion. “green credits” (officially, zero-emission or regulatory credits) work by building more clean vehicles than required and selling the excess allowances to other automakers that need them to comply with emissions mandates.
Now I'm no expert on US policy, and so I roped in GPT to help me explain how this new bill implicates TESLA's profit:
Under the Senate’s “big, beautiful” tax-and-spending bill, Tesla’s regulatory-credit business faces two assaults:
❗ Repeal of CAFE- and ZEV-mandates
The bill would eliminate penalties for automakers missing Corporate Average Fuel Economy targets and roll back zero-emission vehicle mandates that currently force legacy manufacturers to buy credits if they fall short. Remove those penalties and mandates, and there’s no structural need for credits—undercutting the very market that funds Tesla’s $2–3 billion-a-year credit-sales business
❗ End of consumer EV tax incentives
By phasing out the $7,500 new-EV credit (and the $4,000 used-EV credit) within months of enactment, the bill dampens U.S. EV demand overall. A smaller EV market means fewer opportunities for Tesla to leverage fleet-wide ZEV regulations against higher-emitting rivals—further squeezing credit prices and volume
Bottom line: Without CAFE/ZEV obligations and with EV purchase subsidies gone, Tesla’s “green-credit” line—a major profit driver in recent quarters—would likely collapse, removing a key buffer against manufacturing and pricing pressures.
This could be the beginning of a bear market for Tesla lasting throughout the rest of the Trump administration.
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NASDAQ:TSLA
