In a string of truly bizarre tweets early Friday morning, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unleashed his eclectic musings to his over 33 million followers, including one comment that prompted the value of his company’s shares to drop almost 9%.
The comments, which were posted Friday morning over the course of about an hour, began with the Tesla CEO remarking that he would be “selling almost all physical possessions,” including his house.
I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2020
Only a minute later, Musk opined on the price of Tesla’s stock shares, observing that, in his opinion, the “stock price is too high.”
Tesla stock price is too high imo
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2020
Several minutes later, Musk followed up with a call to “give people back their FREEDOM,” a comment similar to anti stay-at-home remarks he made during a conference call on Wednesday.
“To say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic, this is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom,” said Musk, according to Reuters.
But after his Friday morning freedom comment, Musk decided to lean fully into the patriotism angle by tweeting his 33.4 million followers excerpts from the Star Spangled Banner, while phrasing the last line as a question.
And the rocket’s red glare,
the bombs bursting in air— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2020
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2020
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2020
In the hour after Musk began his Twitter rant, shares in the company dropped in value by more than 9%, down to about $686 per share, after closing the previous day at about $781 per share. After The Wall Street Journal asked him whether he was joking, or whether someone approved his tweet, Musk simply said “No.”
In 2018, Musk got into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission for tweeting that he would consider “taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured,” reports The Verge. In response, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk, and eventually hashed out an agreement that required him to get his tweets about Tesla’s finances pre-approved by an in-house lawyer.
“If it was not vetted, he’s at risk of being hauled into court again by the SEC,” Steve Diamond, a law professor at Santa Clara University, told the news agency. “The process was meant to catch these kinds of tweets before they went out. If he did it spontaneously, I think he’s gonna have an issue.”
With respect to his comments on Friday, Musk returned to his remarks a few times to clarify that he didn’t need cash, was doing it for “freedom,” and that he still planned on keeping Gene Wilder’s house – which he bought in 2013 for nearly $7 million.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.