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If Donald Trump puts tariffs on imports from Europe and Asia, the countries affected are sure to respond. In some cases, the reciprocal tariffs (and other actions) will be carefully targeted—to hit Co-President Elon Musk hard. The countries know that if Musk feels some pain, he might lobby Trump to get rid of the tariffs so that the reciprocal tariffs also go away. So, what could those countries do?
A number of things. China is already slow-walking Tesla's request to test self-driving cars in China. Trump's putting tariffs on imports from China is not going to speed up the process. More likely, it will freeze the approval indefinitely.
As it turns out, Musk's companies do quite a bit of business abroad. In fact, less than half of Tesla's sales are from the U.S. Countries hit by Trump's tariffs could respond with very high tariffs on imported Teslas. Some Canadian politicians, including New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh and Liberal Party candidate Chrystia Freeland, are already calling for a 100% tariff on imported Teslas. If most countries hit by Trump's tariffs put very high tariffs on Teslas, the stock market would notice that and Musk's net worth would take a hit.
But it is not only Tesla that could come under attack. Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, said he is "ripping up the province's contract with Starlink," which is part of Musk's company, SpaceX. He said: "Ontario won't do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy." Ontario is not SpaceX's only foreign customer. Its rockets have launched satellites for Australia, India, Turkey, Spain, and South Korea. Needless to say, they and other countries could look elsewhere for future launches. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin might pick up some business soon. Other countries also have launch capabilities.
The E.U. has already found eX-Twitter to be in violation of the E.U. Digital Services Act. A rather large fine or even a complete ban is not out of the question, especially since Musk is now interfering in internal elections in several European countries.
If the rest of the world starts seeing Musk's companies as a proxy for Trump (and thus worth attacking), Musk might start having second thoughts about whether being co-president was a good idea. (V)