Stocks have never been so political as Howard Lutnick says buy Tesla and Tim Walz says sell
As the White House appears to go ‘all-in on propping up Tesla’s stock,’ political polarization is moving from
companies and their products — think: Bud Light — to the stock market
By
James Rogers
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Last Updated: March 22, 2025 at 12:43?p.m. ET
First Published: March 22, 2025 at 9:00?a.m. ET
 President Donald Trump and Elon Musk were seated in a Tesla vehicle as they spoke to the press at the South Portico of the White House on March 11.Photo: AFP via Getty Images
The nation’s political battleground shifted to the stock market this week, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged people to buy shares of Tesla Inc. and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz mocked the electric-vehicle giant’s share-price drop.
“Buy Tesla — it’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap. It’ll never be this cheap again,” Lutnick said on Jesse Watters’s show on Fox News late Wednesday.
“Elon Musk is the best entrepreneur and technologist in America, and I bet on him,” the former Cantor Fitzgerald chairman and chief executive said of the Tesla
CEO. “I wish I was allowed. I’m not allowed to buy any stocks.”
Related: Here’s who should be buying Tesla’s stock right now, and why, says analyst
Thanks to his central role in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” Musk is one of the highest-profile figures in the Trump administration and a key ally of, and massive-scale campaign donor to, the president. But his electric-vehicle company, Tesla, has seen its stock price plunge this year amid a backlash among some consumers who oppose the South Africa–born Musk’s deepening involvement in U.S. politics and government. Lutnick’s comments nonetheless raised eyebrows.
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“Traditionally, we see administrations looking to prop up American industry, and they will often focus on a handful of businesses as an example,” Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, a nonprofit government watchdog organization, told MarketWatch. But the Trump administration’s championing of Tesla — as evidenced by Lutnick’s remarks and a recent photo-op with Tesla vehicles outside the White House — marks a significant shift, according to Libowitz.
“It seems like they are going all-in on propping up Tesla’s stock,” he said. “It’s highly unusual when the owner or primary shareholder is a member of the administration.”
Related: Tesla has a big Elon Musk problem, and Wall Street’s biggest bull is not happy
On Friday, the Campaign Legal Center, a government watchdog, filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and ethics officials at the Commerce Department over Lutnick’s Tesla comments on Fox News. The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MarketWatch.
For his part, Trump has never specifically touted Tesla’s stock, but he did give the company’s electric vehicles a ringing endorsement. “It’s a great product, as good as it gets,” the president said of Tesla’s vehicles during the recent White House photo-op, where he vowed to buy a red Tesla sedan. |
