Tesla deliveries down 43% in Europe while EVs are up 31%

Man has bigger ambitions. Teslas were just a stepping stone to whatever he's unleashing on the world now from the White House.

Or he's completely deranged and the drugs have irreversibly damaged his mind. Both scenarios, or some intersection therein, are plausible.

He has 3 years left to convince the administration to allow non-US-born lizard people to run for president.

Or, more likely, to institute some kind of perpetual monarchy passed down through his 14 kids.

I'm not sure he understands that he will always be the Crassus to someone else's Caesar. Things don't go well for the money man.

Get me off this timeline

> Teslas were just a stepping stone to whatever he's unleashing on the world now from the White House.

Seems unlikely to me that his long term goal was to lead the Republican Inquisition in a great crusade against the libs.

It's probably the drugs. That or he just got bored with the nerd CEO shtick and now his new passion is epic pwning teh libs.

Yeah, he reminds me of Berezovsky.

> 3 years left to convince the administration to allow

It is rare for Oligarchs to be in electable position. They do not need for that.

Garry Kasparov recently made the same connection in this piece: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/02/pu...

> Berezovsky, who elevated Putin to power from behind the scenes, was soon exiled and replaced with more compliant oligarchs. He also met a grisly end—found hanged at his Berkshire mansion at 67—a precedent that might give pause to anyone thinking of risking his business empire to play that gray-cardinal role for the likes of Trump and J. D. Vance.

I'd have him more the Incitatus to Trump's Caligula.

History shows us that things actually go pretty well for the money man you just gotta remember to bring extra water rations when you march into Asia. I always liked to imagine him rallying his troops by telling them that Parthia meant virgin in greek or something like that Παρθία/παρθένος

Lots of examples from American history too though where things turn out better like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Girard

I have a different idea. He just doesn't give a fuck.

Imagine you're one of the richest people on the planet. What are you going to do? Keep chasing more and more money, like a drug addict chasing more and more high? Nah, that's not sustainable, surely not when you're already virtually at the top, and you can have everything you want. Run a charity? Why? Starving children in Africa weren't your problem when you were poor, why should they be now?

Dick around and do dumb shit, that's what you're going to do. Because you can. You have enough money to buy popular social media and turn it into shit because it's fun and why not. And your best buddy who's on board with doing dumb shit happens to be the president of America. Dream come true.

The mistake here is equating Putin to Trump. One is a mastermind and the other is a puppet.

Thanks anal_reactor, solid theory!

> One is a mastermind and the other is a puppet.

No, one is a cruel fox and another one is a stupid monkey.

Their skills lie mainly in adaptability to the situations they found themselves in and using them, but neither is a mastermind.

It took Hugenberg 6 month to loose his government position, 8 to loose his mediatic empire, and a bit more to loose his industrial base.

I did not understand it that way. Putin is probably smarter than Trump (though he does not deserve to be regarded as a mastermind IMHO). The parallel I find interesting is that both are authoritarians who were helped to power by billionaires who thought it would serve their interests. We know the fate Russian “oligarchs” later met.

Random Unexpected Defenestrations

Here's how to remember which one to use:

lose -> lost

loose -> loosened

Nah. If they manage to circumvent or amend the constitution, they'd just give Trump more terms in office rather than open up the office to Elon.

> Man has bigger ambitions. Teslas were just a stepping stone

His Tesla stock is personally levered. I don't know at what point he gets margin called, but a sharp drawdown in Tesla's stock price could force him to sell stock in his crown jewel, SpaceX. (Or just extract money from it somehow. Either way, diminish it.)

Thanks, i'll try to remember.

It might even be a challenge to see if there are any personal consequences.

It's a very common mistake, so don't worry about it

I would guess the irritated phone calls have already become angry phone calls, from his creditors.

I see this repeatedly stated, but have never seen it substantiated in detail. How much stock collateralized debt does he have? Is any of it tied to SpaceX?

He took on 13 billion of debt for Twitter, but it seems like dreaming to think this would be enough even if Tesla went bankrupt.

> How much stock collateralized debt does he have?

As of 2023 Musk had 238,441,261 "shares pledged as collateral to secure certain personal indebtedness [1].

I have not seen any great reporting around what prices he borrowed at (and thus when his margin calls may come).

> Is any of it tied to SpaceX?

Not directly. My point is if Tesla goes bankrupt he has to sell something to make good on those loans. (After, presumably, a year of court fights.) If Tesla is under there will be litigation around an xAI disposal. So that basically leaves Twitter and SpaceX, and one of those is more marketable than the other.

[1] https://ir.tesla.com/_flysystem/s3/sec/000119312523094075/d4...

Which is why X's investors re-valued X to $44bn recently even though just last September Fidelity valued it at $10bn. Seem to recall Trump's friends the Saudi's are big investors. Sure seems like billionaire deep state stuff when you get financially rewarded for your proximity to the prez.

Irony! lol

I wonder how many of the 14 want to have anything to do with him.

I realize you qualified your statement with words like could and diminish. My point is simply that people shouldn't get too excited about the possibility without real details about his debt or level of diversification.

I wish English had better language to distinguish possibility arising from limited observer information about the world versus possibility arising from uncertain future. I'm not saying you did it, but people tend to conflate the two.

I wouldn't be surprised if he has full bought into the idea the universe is just a simulation and he is one of the few PC characters (vs all of us NPCs). SO to him life is just a video game and and he's just playing around like someone would do in GTA V.

To me his messaging (whether that's his actual goal) is clear through his action (and words), mostly along the lines of bringing the sci fi world of the future into the present:

- Space X -> we need humans on mars

- openAI -> we need the power of AI

- neuralink -> also the AI talks to our brains (arguably the most rational path to immortality, a common goal of billionaires)

- tesla -> e cars are feasible, simpler, better for the environment

- starlink -> internet for anyone is feasible and rural areas are poorly served

- boring company -> make roads 3D and traffic is gone

all that, I wouldn't call dicking around. He doesn't give a fuck about a lot, but he gives a fuck about cool sci fi stuff

> We know the fate Russian “oligarchs” later met.

Russians close to power have historically often met that fate - at least since 1917, I suspect either prison or forced internal or external exile was more common before that. Americans not so much I think, so this probably won't transfer.

I would 100% do that if I had enough money to shield me from any consequences of such attitude.

Trump won't be around forever, if only due to age/health. Need the next perpetual emperor to be young when he first steps into office.