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Elon Musk’s DC power grab hasn’t been the Tesla-stock jet fuel investors were expecting.

Tesla shares have fallen more than 40% since January — erasing all of the “Trump bump” that briefly saw the stock gain more than 90% after Election Day. Musk, whose wealth is overwhelmingly linked to his Tesla holdings, has personally lost $121 billion from his net worth over the past three months.

So what happened? Why hasn’t Musk’s rapid ascent into oligarch territory helped rescue his “baby” (as President Trump called Tesla during the pair’s bizarre ad-like press conference last week on the South Lawn)?

There are two main reasons:

While Musk is holed up in the EEOB looking for ways to break the federal government, Tesla’s core business is in crisis.

The company reported its first-ever drop in global sales last year, and this year isn’t looking much better. Wall Street analysts from RBC, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Mizuho and JPMorgan have all lowered their delivery forecasts for the company.

In China, in particular, Tesla is struggling to compete against domestic carmakers. Last month Tesla shipments in the country fell 49% year-over-year. Europe sales are also slumping, particularly in Germany, where consumers have been outraged over Musk’s support of a far-right nationalist party with links to Nazis . Sales tumbled 76% in Germany last month from a year earlier.

The news isn’t getting better for Tesla. Its stock got a double-shot of bad news out of China on Monday.

Its No. 1 Chinese rival, BYD, unveiled a new charging system that can give its latest model cars 250 miles of ra nge after just five minutes — twice as fast as Tesla’s charging rate.

On the same day, Tesla also launched a free monthlong trial of its “Full Self-Driving” software in China — a sign the company is desperately trying to reverse is declining market share.

Its shares fell 5% in the US on Monday and another 5% on Tuesday after RBC lowered its price target in response to growing domestic competition.

All those headaches would amount to a dire problem for Tesla even if it had a normal CEO. But Tesla is run by the MAGA-pilled Musk, whose personal brand has gone from “OK, he’s a bit weird” a few years ago to “OK, he’s posting racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories” in 2025.

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A CNN poll last week found that 53% of Americans have a negative view of Musk, while roughly 60% say he has neither the right experience nor the right judgment to make the kinds of sweeping cuts his “department” is carrying out.