Apr.04

electoral-vote.com

Dem 47

   

GOP 53

This Week in Schadenfreude: A Look at the Super Week Elon Musk Just Had

We concede this is almost too easy, and that we've already discussed numerous items on the list. Still, when it comes to schadenfreude, there is no person who was the subject of more of it this week than Elon Musk. So, we had to go with him. A rundown of his misfortunes:

• The highest-profile setback of the week, of course, was the judicial race in Wisconsin. Musk went all-in on that one, both in terms of money and in terms of emotional investment. He confidently predicted victory, only to see his candidate lose by 10 points. After the results were in, he suddenly decided that he'd always expected to lose the race, and compared it to sacrificing a pawn in a chess game. Whatever his post hoc rationalizations may be, his political brand took a big hit, especially given that his approval ratings have now sunk into the 30s.
  
  
• Musk once again utilized his trick of promising $1 million prizes to two lucky randomly selected voters. Wisconsin AG Josh Kaul argued that is a violation of state law, but couldn't persuade the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Musk was in the clear, then, until it came out that the two "winners" were not actually randomly selected. So, he might now be guilty of fraud.
  
  
• Consistent with his low approval numbers and diminishing political brand, it was reported that Donald Trump is planning to cut Musk loose. The official, face-saving reason is allegedly going to be that Musk reached the 130-day limit for special government employees. The real reason, allegedly, is that Trump is tired of the damage Musk is doing to Trump's own image and approval ratings.
  
  
• In Q1 of 2025, Tesla had a 13% decline in sales, the worst quarter it's ever had. And much of that market share is being grabbed by Chinese maker BYD, which posted a 60% increase over that same timeframe.
  
  
• As a consequence of the decline in Tesla's fortunes, not to mention the trade war, Musk lost $11 billion yesterday. He's lost $52 billion this year, and over $100 billion since Trump was reelected.
  
  
• This picture has been trending on Twitter all week (thanks to reader J.L. in Los Angeles, CA, for bringing it to our attention):
  
  
  

We don't have too much else to add here, other than maybe "karma's a bit**." (Z)