Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has staged a strong rebound since June 5, 2025, the day public tensions erupted between CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump.
That day, the spat knocked Tesla shares down about 14%, wiping roughly $150 billion from the company’s market value. TSLA stock plunged to an intraday low of around $284.70, sparking fears that the high-profile clash could weigh heavily on the company. Instead, the opposite happened.
By the very next session on June 6, the EV maker began to rebound, kicking off a sustained rally that carried through the summer. As of September 16, Tesla closed at $421.62, marking a gain of more than 48% from the fallout low. Put differently, a $1,000 buy on June 5 low would now show about a $481 unrealized gain.
What turned the Tesla tide?
First, Musk’s open-market purchase of roughly $1 billion of Tesla stock in mid-September acted as a powerful signal, compressing skepticism and accelerating momentum. The buy coincided with a multi-day surge that pushed shares back into 2025 positive territory.
Second, fundamentals stabilized. Tesla’s Q2 2025 report confirmed over 410,000 vehicles produced and 384,000 delivered, alongside a record 9.6 GWh of energy storage deployed, evidence that the energy business continues to scale even as EV demand ebbs and flows. The company’s Q2 update also reiterated key capacity and supply-chain projects slated to come online this year.
Third, product-roadmap narrative improved. Through July and August, Tesla advanced its robotaxi/FSD storyline and began limited-footprint rollouts, with coverage noting expansion beyond Austin and fresh activity in Las Vegas, developments that fed the “software/AI optionality” thesis many bulls lean on.
How Tesla flipped the Trump fallout
June 5 marks the political shock: a very public Musk–Trump break that slammed the stock intraday and into the close. June 6 marks the market’s first response: shares began to claw back losses in early trade and closed near $295, establishing the practical “day-after” baseline from which this rally is measured.
As of September 16, Tesla closed at $421.62 (Macrotrends shows $421.54), near multi-month highs and comfortably above the post-fallout base. The move represents a 48% climb since the feud’s nadir and reflects a blend of insider signaling (Musk’s buy), operational delivery/stationary-storage execution, and renewed enthusiasm for autonomy/robotaxis.
Markets initially treated the Musk–Trump fallout as a serious threat, pricing in policy and contract risk within hours. But three months on, the tape tells a different story: Tesla has outrun the shock.
With the stock now firmly above its June base, investors appear to be weighing execution and optionality more heavily than political theater. Whether that persists will depend on deliveries into year-end, FSD and robotaxi milestones, and how rate cuts filter into EV affordability, but for now, the post-fallout scorecard reads Musk 1, Panic 0.
