Elon Musk, you’re in a hole. Stop digging!

The world’s richest man Elon Musk is in a self-dug hole. The problem for Tesla shareholders is he keeps on digging.

Doubling down in his attack on Donald Trump is about as far out as one could go on the risk scale.

The break-up of the wealthiest man on the planet and the world’s most powerful is playing out like any romantic split – with cross-court lashings of invective, threats and recriminations. But this divorce is being played out in the public on the combatants-owned social media platforms, X and Truth Social.

And neither man possesses the self-regulation switch that would interrupt an escalation. So BYO popcorn!

Musk and Trump: A feud for the agesCredit: Marija Ercegovac

Musk can’t win, but he can inflict a load of self harm and damage on Tesla shareholders.

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With each breakout in hostilities, the electric carmaker’s share price dives – and with it, Musk’s wealth. Even without Musk’s meltdown, Tesla is already under pressure over a consistent sales slump of its cars and its struggling introduction of robotaxis.

The company is expected to announce a 12 to 13 per cent drop in quarterly sales again this week – a challenge that Musk needs to overcome even before dealing with any further regulatory pain that Trump is capable of inflicting on the company or his other interests, like SpaceX.

The feud escalated into the stratosphere this week when Musk threatened to form a new US political party if Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill was passed – which happened on Tuesday US time.

Trump responded by suggesting he could look into deporting Musk back to South Africa and tear up the electric vehicle subsidies.

“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE,” Trump spat out on Truth Social.

Forbes has estimated that Musk’s companies have been fed at least $US30 billion ($46 billion) of public support since 2010, including lucrative rocket launch and satellite contracts for SpaceX, a low-cost federal loan for Tesla’s first factory and billions of dollars of free money it generates selling federal and California pollution credits.

Sure, this tit-for-tat skirmish looks like two lunatics shooting from the hip – but they have the capacity to inflict plenty of collateral damage, too.

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Even Musk’s immense wealth is unlikely to be enough to successfully make good on a threat to create his own US political party – the America Party. But he also vowed to target politicians who supported Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill in future elections.

If we are to take Musk’s comments at face value, his beef with Trump is over $US3.3 trillion damage that would be inflicted on the US budget by the bill’s tax slashing and increased defence spending.

Musk says it negates the budget cuts he achieved during his time running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Trump is now musing about the possibility of having DOGE attack its creator.

“DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?” Trump asked reporters on Tuesday.

The president, who is missing a self-regulating off-switch, has ample opportunity to financially punish Musk.

And to the chagrin of Tesla’s shareholders, Musk is also lacking a control mechanism. Tesla’s directors have a long history of letting him operate without a leash.

The board has been fighting a Delaware court decision that voided Musk’s 2018 compensation package, valued at over $US50 billion.

Its chair Robyn Denholm vehemently denied reports earlier this year that the carmaker had engaged headhunters to find a new chief executive for Tesla as Musk was spending too much time as Trump’s First Buddy and cost-cutter in chief and too little leading the company.

Musk is ready to score big on more own-goals in this big ego mud fight.

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