Last spring, I had the opportunity to visit the Tesla headquarters in Austin, Texas, as part of a business career trip with the University of Colorado Boulder. The tour was expansive, witnessing each step of creating a Tesla, from piecing together scraps of metal to employees driving the cars out of the building. After the tour was over, we met with a former CU Boulder student who now worked at Tesla.
The first thing I noticed about her was how exhausted she looked. She told us about her position in construction management, and how she worked directly alongside Elon Musk in the boardroom. She remarked on his temperamental attitude, and whatever he said, went. Most of all, she felt as though she had no job security whatsoever, since he often made rash decisions and fired employees on sight.
As we left the factory, we were pushed out of the lobby quite quickly and headed to the bus where we’d be picked up and taken off the property. Then, out of nowhere, we saw Elon Musk exit the door where we had just come out of. All of us students stared in awe, including me—I was seeing the richest man in the world in the flesh.
But while everyone was starstruck, I had different emotions. That Tesla employee we just talked to looked like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown: tears were welling up in her eyes from stress. I thought, “How can someone make people feel that way and be okay with it?”
Turns out, he can hurt a lot more than that.
I would say Elon Musk has never been a star character. His business ventures are clearly impressive—PayPal, SpaceX, The Boring Company, OpenAI and Tesla are just a few of his named creations. His current estimated net worth is more than any other person in the world: $432 billion. So, he must be doing something right.
Looking past his business ventures is where it gets interesting. I was personally shocked when I learned that he had 12 children, with one of them being named the infamous X Æ A-12. There were his dissents about the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020, and his acquisition of Twitter in 2022 was when things really started to become clear.
Before 2022, Musk hadn’t been too politically involved, as many larger figures try to keep themselves separate from their companies. He had publicly supported Democratic presidential candidates in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020, but ultimately switched to supporting Donald Trump in 2024, becoming the largest donor to the 2024 election. Now, he’s been recently appointed as the inaugural leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a governmental advisory body meant to cut costs on “wasteful” expenditures.
Now, Elon Musk fills my news feed almost once a week. From performing a very questionable salute during a rally, spreading misinformation on X (formally Twitter), and making controversial statements leading to accusations of sexism, antisemitism and transphobia, it’s made me wonder: what happened to the guy who just used to make cars?
Politics have almost always leaned with progressives having a positive view of electric vehicles, while conservatives have more negative views. That being said, if you think of an average Tesla driver, it’s likely you think of someone rich and progressive.
This leads to an odd dynamic: those who are actively buying and using Teslas have the opposite views and political motivations of Elon Musk himself. Meanwhile they are currently feeding into his contributions to Donald Trump, X, and right-wing extremism. The dynamic becomes a dilemma—should you continue to support a company where the leader has different morals and values? Or do you separate the “thing” from the creator?
This dilemma shows up quite commonly. From Kanye West to Mark Zuckerberg, there’s always been the excuse of saying that someone is intelligent and talented and created something life-changing, which seems to somehow wash away their current beliefs and behaviors. However, I’m not sure this is the right approach, as these CEOs continue to profit off of your purchase. Values should be something you consider when buying something, especially if it’s a specialized good and people are being directly impacted by the company and the products it makes.
I’m not saying if you currently have a Tesla that you should simply get rid of it. No one was truly aware of the actions that Musk was going to endure to the American political landscape until recently, and you’ve already contributed (accidentally) to the madness. There’s been a new trend of consumers putting stickers on their Teslas that say “I bought this before Elon went crazy.”
If you’re looking to go into the electric car market and also dislike Musk’s affiliations, maybe you should look elsewhere than Tesla. There are a lot of electric vehicles available now, so the options to choose from are more vast than they were even five years ago.
It will be hard to predict what happens to Musk in the following years, whether he’ll have the potential to run for another government position or if he’ll remain a true follower to Trump. Maybe he’ll find new business to create or companies to acquire. One thing is for sure: it’s going to be interesting.