r/politics • u/newsweek ✔ Newsweek • 1d ago
Elon Musk lost $11B after Trump's tariffs—and he wasn't the biggest loser
https://www.newsweek.com/musk-bezos-zuckerberg-losses-trump-tariffs-20552551.2k
u/Irwin-M_Fletcher 1d ago
We can congratulate Trump in starting the trade war he wanted. China has now imposed a 34% tariff on U.S. goods. It doesn’t even matter what the other 180+ countries do at this point. We are likely on an escalating path as Trump tries to get the last word.
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u/Logical_Park7904 21h ago
American ego final boss. I don't think he or his followers realise or want to admit that the rest of the world don't need america as much as they think.
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u/Maharog 21h ago
What sucks is objectively American economy is really important. Intentionally shitting on everything because you are trying to throw your weight around (and Trump has a LOT of weight to throw around) will have drastic and horrible consequences in the whole world. But the narcissism needed to think that other countries in the world will roll over and give you their lunch money is incredible.
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u/ActurusMajoris Norway 18h ago
Yeah I’d rather throw my lunch money away than give it to a bully. Also, I will definitely not put thumbtacks on their chairs, but I also definitely can’t explain how they got there. It’s a mystery, really.
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u/TraditionalSky5617 16h ago
Not only that, he hasn’t disclosed what the collected money will be used for.
I mean, we all know it’s a pickpocket scam to take $3-$5k every year from citizens to give wealthy Americans tax breaks, but hey…
I’m not sure they can tax without a formal plan this way…
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u/Thewall3333 15h ago
Yes, weight is a good metaphor. Trump is a big kid who sees the current biggest bully pushing other kids around, doing whatever he wants to his chosen victim or two everyday. Then he finds himself the biggest kid in the playground and decides he can do whatever he wants because the other big kid did -- but overlooks the fact the other bully only bullied one or two at a time. So the second bully picks a fight with everyone at the same time, not realizing things suddenly will not go well for him.
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u/Purple_Ad_2471 21h ago
Well, my country is extremely dependent on the US, so hopefully China takes advantage but tourism's decline will definitely impact our economy.
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u/SumpCrab Florida 21h ago
How much better would the world be if we took that money that just disappeared, and spent it on poverty, education, and infrastructure? But nope, they would rather set it on fire.
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u/Scopeexpanse 21h ago
Yep. Somehow, for these guys, paying bit more in taxes is unacceptable but loosing $11B in net worth to own the libs is totally fine.
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u/HorsepowerHateart 20h ago
The oligarchs are way beyond owning the libs: they've moved on to owning the country. A temporary drop in their illiquid assets isn't even a speed bump on that road for them.
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u/Scopeexpanse 17h ago
Yea, I suppose if your long term goal is a recession where you buy up everything for cheap that checks out. But, also, how can a human be so evil? To intentionally cause suffering so that you can accumulate more wealth. When you already have more wealth than anyone could spend in a lifetime.
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u/divrekku 21h ago
Money didn’t disappear. Paper wealth disappeared. I get what you’re saying and agree we have enough money to fund fixing things like education, food and housing scarcity and infrastructure, but a stock market drop is a different thing.
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u/ThePhysicistIsIn 21h ago
To some degree, the "money that just disappeared" never existed in the first place.
Like, there is ~50 trillions of value in US homes, but you couldn't take everyone's homes and sell them and use the money to solve world hunger. And if the housing market crashes tomorrow, it is bad news for the individual home owners' portfolio, but no houses have disappeared, everyone gets to still live in those houses.
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u/Stop_Sign 21h ago
Setting it on fire would be better than what's happening: it's being used to fund even more tax cuts for the wealthy
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u/FootlongDonut 21h ago
Americans haven't suffered like they are going to since the 30's and most truly aren't prepared for this upcoming economics class.
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u/StephenM10 20h ago
I'm from MALAYSIA. I can confirm my country never implement 47% trarriff to any goods from USA. our import taxes are by product /services. We never have blanket tariff to any country.. Even at average it never goes up to 47%.he just a blerdy liar
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u/Caffeywasright 20h ago
China is a small fish in us exports. The EU is by far the biggest issue. If they impose retaliatory tariffs tantamount to the US most likely the US economy will tank. The US exports almost 400 billion dollars worth of goods to the eu every year.
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u/Infarad 17h ago
I hope the EU hit back hard, because the US needs and deserves it.
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u/AlbericoDukeOfAosta Europe 13h ago
As European i hope we have the mind to specif target retailatory tariffs on goods and services produced in red state and swing states who voted red
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u/DrCharlesBartleby 20h ago
Love how his "Retaliatory tariffs" on a fake number sparked ACTUAL tariffs much higher than the real number
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u/phluidity 19h ago
Hope the US consumer really likes edamame and tofu, because there is gonna be a shitload of soybeans that have no other customer. And a lot of very happy Brazilian and Canadian soybean farmers whose life just got a whole lot easier.
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u/Oddblivious 13h ago
He said his was 60 something percent already. It would be so funny to watch China continue to move it up just below what we charge back and forth to trump hits 100% and has to stop first
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u/Key_Contest6220 12h ago
Well thats half of the imaginary 68% tariff trump claimed so any Trump cultists should be happy china just halved its tariffs on us
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u/Drolb 1d ago
I don’t know, a guy who lost 15 billion but still has a working penis is probably less of a loser than Musk
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u/juiceboxedhero Colorado 1d ago
Probably used the wrong glue on his dick implant
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u/Dick_snatcher 21h ago
You're supposed to use wood glue, he probably went with gorilla glue
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u/juiceboxedhero Colorado 21h ago
He probably sniffed the glue which is why he can't string a sentence together anymore.
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u/ripelivejam 22h ago
His penis? To shreds, you say...
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u/EggsceIlent 21h ago
Don't know how much he lost yesterday, but someone posted he loses like 1 billion for every $2.49 or something the stock drops.
So I'm assuming 11 billion was yesterday.
Today it's (last I checked) lost another $20 that that's closing on another $10 billion
🤣 Guy literally put a shotgun in his own face and pulled the trigger destroying his brand by lifting his mask and showing us the real elon.
I'm amazed the board hasn't called a no confidence vote by now
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u/DoctorGregoryFart 21h ago
A guy with 15 bucks and a working penis is less of a loser than Musk.
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u/TheMolluskPod 20h ago
Hey, did you just call me?
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u/rupeshjoy852 New Jersey 21h ago
Is this botched surgery rumor real or just a rumor? Just curious.
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u/ThePhysicistIsIn 21h ago
It was confirmed by his ex, but that doesn't answer the question. No one knows.
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u/LashlessMind 20h ago
I've lost about $190k since the Trump Tax was announced. I suspect I'm a lot worse off, relatively speaking, than the nazi is :(
It doesn't help that I'm retiring at the end of the month, and seeing the money you're counting on suddenly disappear is pretty alarming.
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u/sinisterfaceofwoke 17h ago
I can't even imagine the state of his bladder after all that K. Money can't fix that either
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u/Spottswoodeforgod 1d ago
Maybe not financially over this. But fairly confident, that despite his numerous success, he will always be an astronomically big loser.
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u/barenutz 23h ago
He has always been a loser that happened to get rich. Dude is the cringiest thing. Even the way he talks, I can barely listen to him without laughing
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u/ZebraSandwich4Lyf 23h ago edited 23h ago
Guy is genuinely one of the biggest losers on the planet, I mean imagine being the wealthiest person in the world and paying somebody to boost your account in a video game and then pretending you did all the work and making a fool of yourself.
He genuinely has the mentality of a basement dwelling teenager that is desperate for attention.
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u/Cpt-Olimar 23h ago edited 22h ago
To his defense, he is all day long high on Kitamine and doesn't know what is real and what is fantasy.
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u/pcmasterrace_noob 21h ago
Anyone want to take bets on how long he's got before he has a piss bag permanently taped to his leg?
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u/Polar_Vortx America 21h ago
I don’t know about permanently but I wouldn’t be surprised if this weirdo has one fairly often
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u/_Mephistocrates_ 23h ago
A world where someone can lose over a billion dollars and it not even affect them in any meaningful way should never exist. Corruption to the core.
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u/AINonsense 1d ago
despite his numerous success
Are you talking about money laundering, or him pretending to be a brilliant businessman on TV??
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u/Spottswoodeforgod 1d ago
Well, despite his obvious failures, he is generally recognised as the wealthiest person on earth. Regardless of how he has achieved this, this does imply success in obtaining personal wealth from a variety of sources.
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u/amberlooobs 23h ago
Obtaining wealth from your parents’ emerald mine is considered success?
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u/juiceboxedhero Colorado 1d ago
He inherited his money.
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u/Notrius01 23h ago
Vanguard, Blackrock and co. made him rich by buying tesla stock like there's no tomorrow.
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u/mindmapsofficial 23h ago
Vanguard and blackrock only hold Tesla stock because retail and institutional investors buy it and buy indexes that hold it. Vanguard and black rock are just platforms. It’s not like there’s some guy at vanguard who’s saying “we need more Tesla stock!”
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u/Notrius01 22h ago
They are mutual funds they invest on behalf of other people but do their own investment choices. What you describe is a broker (middleman).
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u/No_Yogurtcloset2498 22h ago
I mean I wouldn't consider being a nepo baby to a slave driving emerald mine owner followed by acquiring as many successful businesses so he can claim their success as his own despite the people doing the actual work being smarter and better people as being successful. The only success I see for him is successfully tanking successful businesses after he gained control of them
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u/AINonsense 1d ago
he is generally recognised as the wealthiest person on earth
I thought that was Muskolini.
Either way, most 'wealth' is in flux for now.
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u/townmorron 23h ago
Except for the $40 some billion in government contracts. don't worry they are screwing us so hard they can't lose
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u/A1sauc3d 1d ago
Problem is all the filthy rich people who lose some money now will end up making it back and then some. They’re untouchable. They’ll just profit off a recession by buying everything up cheap. All trump has to do is remove the tariffs for the stock market to shoot back up. And only he and his buddies know when he’s going to do that. It’s all a big scam. The losers are those at the bottom and the winners are those at the top, just furthering the class divide.
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u/grahamulax 23h ago
Exactly, we MUST NOT support anyone who’s ever touched this administration and not give a cent to their corporations. That’s the only way. Companies should crumble, even after a while naturally as new ones take over. Well, America needs that all over now.
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u/AriiGalaxyy 1d ago
Exactly. The game is rigged, and we’re just spectators watching the rich play 4D chess while the rest of us get stuck footing the bill.
They crash the economy, buy everything at a discount, then flip the switch and make billions when things rebound. Meanwhile, the average person is just trying to survive the rollercoaster they didn’t ask to ride
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u/rocc_high_racks 1d ago
All trump has to do is remove the tariffs for the stock market to shoot back up
This is just patently untrue. Traders are pricing in his erratic behaviour.
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u/theoxygenthief 23h ago edited 23h ago
There are institutional traders that don’t have the flexibility to price for erratic behaviour.
Yes, it probably won’t regain 100% when tariffs are removed but it doesn’t have to. Billionaires can gobble up a stock that was worth $100 at the start for $50 in a bit. They can hold their existing stock with zero material cost to themselves as they have billions in reserve beyond that. If that stock only rebounds to $80 when tariffs are removed, that’s still a 60% profit for nothing. Let’s say their existing stock that was worth $100 also only rebounds to $80 - that’s a 20% loss, more than offset by 60% profits on new trades. It also allows them to buy more controlling stakes in more companies, watch their competitors vanish and their control over markets grow, as smaller companies can’t absorb the cost inflation for anywhere near as long as they can. We saw this exact scenario many times over, eg COVID.
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u/crazybones 1d ago
I'm pretty sure one of the main aims of these tariffs is to spook the markets and perhaps later unspook them by removing some of the tariffs.
And because Trump and his family always have advance knowledge of what he's about to do they can play the markets to their advantage in both directions.
We have to remember that Trump never misses an opportunity to enrich himself. And with these tariffs he has surely hit the jackpot.
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u/AINonsense 1d ago
because Trump and his family always have advance knowledge of what he's about to do they can play the markets to their advantage in both directions.
Not to mention scraping up distressed assets in the interim. His whole 'political' career is just a massive heist in sickeningly slow motion.
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u/chocobowler 22h ago
Aren’t there laws against that though?
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u/iFartThereforeiAm 21h ago
The current opposition leader of Australia, on the election trail now, was recently called out for buying up a bunch of bank shares at Rock bottom prices after the 2008 crash, just a day or so before the government was to announce a bailout for the banks. Sounds like insider trading to me, but haven't seen any repercussions.
This is a former police officer that somehow has a multi million dollar empire of child care centers, which are heavily subsidised by the tax payers.
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u/KyloRenCadetStimpy Rhode Island 1d ago
He could have spent that $11B on a working schlong
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u/newsweek ✔ Newsweek 1d ago
By Shane Croucher - Breaking News Editor:
Elon Musk saw around $11 billion shaved off his wealth in the stock market bloodbath that followed President Donald Trump's unveiling of tariffs on Thursday, taking his overall losses since the beginning of 2025 to more than $110 billion.
That is according to financial data compiled by Bloomberg, which monitors the wealth of the world's 500 richest people.
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/musk-bezos-zuckerberg-losses-trump-tariffs-2055255
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u/KittenLaserFists 23h ago
I know that isn't "real" money, but it is still losses to someone. So who is gaining that money?
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u/Usuhnam3 22h ago
Everyone loses. People are divesting from the market, liquidating their shares for a lower sum than they were worth 3 months ago, in order to preserve what they can and minimize their loss. As more people divest, the stock value plummets, scaring more people into divesting before it’s worthless.
The “money” was always just immaterial aether, with a value assigned to it almost arbitrarily by con artists who utilize the “market” in order to rob the Everyman. That value doesn’t mean it’s worth that much or that there’s that much material money behind it- it’s all just fantasy to begin with.
So it’s not really going anywhere because it never existed. The stock market is a massive fuckin scam to begin with that is designed to help the rich get richer while the rest of us starve with the guise of helping our economy by allowing people to “invest” in American businesses. But in reality it’s a casino and a few people at the top control the outcomes. And trump just loves bankrupting casinos.
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u/GeologistOriginal800 21h ago
The economy is not a zero sum game. If you had a big pile of gold and one day no one wanted it because electronics companies went out of business, did someone else get rich?
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u/GrunchJingo 20h ago edited 20h ago
You buy a stock for $100. Overnight no one becomes willing to buy the stock for more than $10. Where did the money go?
I said it at the very beginning, you gave someone $100. That $100 is still "in the economy" even though the 90% of the stock's value disappeared in an instant.
But that's an oversimplification because billionaires and businesses will use stocks as collateral for loans, and banks are going to be less willing to accept those stocks as collateral when the value falls too much or becomes too chaotic. So it's not just the last buyer's money that was "lost" it can also the bank's money lost in a loan, among other things.
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u/kyuubikid213 23h ago
Honestly, it's just disgusting a person can even have 11 Billion Dollars to begin with.
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u/Aromatic_Estimate_95 23h ago
Hell be getting huge government contracts, subsidies and Saudi back hands of trillions, hell be fine. We will be the ones getting fucked
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u/Twicebakedpotatoe 22h ago
It doesn’t matter, he still has plenty of money and he’ll buy in big once trump lifts the pressure from the tariffs, this is nothing but manufactured wealth distribution by the billionaire class using the lessons they learned from Covid
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u/FredUpWithIt 1d ago
As usual, the joke here is on everyone who is feeling satisfying schadenfreud over this...because he doesn't give a single flying fuck about what the exact number shows on any given day.
He might be a fucking idiot, but he isn't actually stupid, and he wouldn't be participating in this bullshit if he didn't know that it would benefit him in the long run.
Anyone giggling over the expectation of Musks downfall hasn't been paying attention. It's going to take active measures to counter his influence and restrain his activities in order to stop him.
People laughing about minor blips in his net worth is just the kind of diversion he loves. Time would be better spent highlighting all the actual bad shit he's doing. Because there's plenty of it, and it's far more damaging to us than a $11 billion fluctuation is to him.
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u/DChristy87 Ohio 22h ago
$11B out of is $340B+? Yeah, I'm going to cry my little heart out for him and all of the other billionaires.
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u/Asturien 22h ago
The biggest loser in the world lost $11B after Trump tariffs, and yet he still wasn't the biggest financial loser.
Fixed the title.
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u/EntropicInfundibulum 22h ago
It is a little satisfying that these traitors lost billions. But there plan is to recoup those losses 1000x.
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u/Mean-Coffee-433 America 21h ago edited 20h ago
He will always be the biggest loser regardless of what is in his bank account
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u/Play-t0h 20h ago
Elon didn't lose shit. The value of his investments went down, but they could go back up.
Now someone who was planning on using their investments in the next year and will have to cash em out? That is who will suffer.
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u/JuliusErrrrrring 20h ago
No he didn’t. He had inside info on this. Guarantee he profited off of this in ways the public has no knowledge of yet.
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u/spacesaucesloth 22h ago
nothing in this world is giving me life more rn than watching this creeps wealth dissolve faster than an alkaseltzer.
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u/Economy_Combination4 22h ago
He’ll always be the biggest loser. The guy pays people to play online games for him so he can brag about his rank.
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u/dominarhexx California 22h ago
He hasn't lost anything but perceived value. He can just use his billions to buy up all the failing businesses and grow his wealth exponentially. This is the scam. It's a manufactured recession to consolidate wealth. This is the "redistribution of wealth" the Right is always accusing the Left of wanting.
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u/unabsolute 21h ago
and he wasn't the biggest loser
Not so sure about that. Who else did jumping jacks on stage for Trump, nationally showing off how jiggly his mashed potato body is? Biggest loser in the World!
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u/motohaas 21h ago
Taxing the rich would have been much less devastating overall,and the government would have actually had cash to operate on
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u/Royal-Constant-4588 21h ago
He should lose much more hoping his Tesla goes belly up for starters because of tax laws that is his big money maker
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u/IsolatedFrequency101 21h ago
Regardless of the financials, he is definitely the biggest loser, ever.
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u/PrideofPicktown Ohio 19h ago
Don’t worry, Elon, you’ll always be the biggest fucking loser in my book.
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u/mrtruthiness 18h ago
That article was after TSLA lost 5% yesterday. TSLA is down another 10% today.
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u/branjames117 18h ago
Does $11B even matter to someone like Musk? It might as well be an imaginary number. In the endgame of all this turmoil, Musk and his kind will just use their remaining billions to buy up the rest of our capital at rockbottom prices. Then when the stock market recovers, that -$11B will look more like +$100B, which, again, is a meaningless imaginary number. All that matters is at the end the middle class will own less and the technocrats will own even more.
So let's not celebrate until heads start to roll.
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u/PuffIeHuffle 18h ago
Others may have lost more money than him, but I think we can all agree he is definitely the biggest loser
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u/CaptainOktoberfest 18h ago
Are we sure he lost money? Because if they knew they were going to torpedo our economy, I bet they shorted and/or bought puts to benefit from the drop. These guys are opportunists.
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u/Id_rather_be_lurking 17h ago
So far. But let's be clear, still plenty of buying power. Stocks are becoming cheaper, businesses are going to require bailouts. This is a wealth transfer. They are tanking things to make them cheaper to purchase and consolidate. Our market will probably never fully recover from this but increased valuation will return eventually.
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u/Ghost_shell89 Ohio 1d ago
Sadly that’s a small chunk of his wealth. It’s an obscenity at this point.
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u/Mammoth_Restaurant42 23h ago
Imagine loosing $11b and then having to go into the office and work along side the guy that caused you this loss. All while trying to save the US government a few hundred million. It was a worthwhile career change.
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u/Elektromek 23h ago
The American people are the biggest losers. Rich assholes like this are insulated what the hardships we face because of this.
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u/coconutpiecrust 23h ago
The fact that anyone, anywhere, can lose a billion dollars and still be OK is a testament to our failure as a society.
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u/Usuhnam3 23h ago
“he was the biggest loser”
Always has been. Remember that picture of him before the hair plugs? Looking like Sméagol and shit, that was as cool as he’ll ever be.
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u/1-800-WhoDey 21h ago
This is nothing to him..I don’t think people fully grasp just how much wealth he actually possesses.
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u/FickleMustard 21h ago
And yet he is still insanely wealthy. This is why billionaires should have a special tax bracket.
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u/New_Guava9191 21h ago
“They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” Michael Caine. Batman The Dark Knight
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u/No_Pressure_1289 20h ago
I hope these billionaires are so happy that they backed trump. I guess you get what you paid for!
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u/element-94 Canada 20h ago
Articles like this are pointless. Let's focus on things that matter and not concern ourselves with marginal decreases in equity. His loss of 11B is irrelevant next to people losing massive chunks in their retirement funds. Let's talk about that and not mention this loser ever again.
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u/JiggyWivIt 20h ago
Maybe he wasn't the biggest -money- loser, but biggest loser in every other aspect.
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u/no1ofimport 19h ago
He’s probably doing all this to run the market down then buy up the dip. Really what is $11 billion to someone with his money?
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u/3RR0RFi3ND 19h ago
Billion is a lot for us, but doesn’t mean shit for them.
Only 11b out of 386?
I feel so sorry for them /s
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u/afrikaninparis 18h ago
Sure. Me having $450 in my wallet and loosing $11. Won’t be able to sleep. Fuck Musk, but Jesus Fucking Christ, why everything about him is newsworthy nowadays? Fuck!
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u/User42wp 18h ago
Bullshit. These guys knowing the rates before being announced was massively valuable. Shorting the right industries or going all in USSteel. This is a smoke show.
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u/Alpenkreisel 18h ago edited 17h ago
If the US Americans do not immediately impeach Trump from office and then throw him into prison, there will be no return to the world community for the USA in the foreseeable future. The point from which it can only get worse has long been exceeded. And this is exactly where we see the impact of a weak education system, because I see US Americans from all age groups in comments every day, how they defend and celebrate their own downfall and proven misinformation.
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u/bringthepang 17h ago
Except he hasn’t actually lost anything because a reduction in stock price is just unrealized losses until he sells
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u/MotherOf_3_is_a_MILF 17h ago
Trump is using tariffs to motivate them to “make a deal”. What does he want from the oligarchs? More money to support MAGA congressional candidates in the next midterm election so they can pass laws repealing presidential term limits, current campaign contribution limits and his third term election campaign.
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u/rodentmaster 17h ago
For 2 years running, BYD has out-built tesla in number of cars, and out-sold them in the USA for EVs sold. Then he starts cozying up to the GOP and they institute massive 20% tariffs against chinese imported EVs, cutting them out of the market.
Coincidence? musk has been sweating bullets for 2 years with TSLA stock. he started counting a large portion of his TSLA profits from areas he promised he would never monetize (maintenance and power station markups).
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