This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘Tesla soars on Musk’s potential departure’
Marc Filippino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, April 3rd, and this is your FT News Briefing.
The US trade war is in full effect, and Tesla’s share price had a really strange day yesterday. Plus, what’s next for France’s far right now that Marine Le Pen has been banned from elections?
Ben Hall
This is a sort of an earthquake which really will potentially shake up French politics in a way few people had envisaged.
Marc Filippino
I’m Marc Filippino, and here’s the news you need to start your day.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The US is gonna impose big reciprocal tariffs on its major trading partners. That includes a further 34 per cent levy on China and 20 per cent on the EU.
Donald Trump’s voice clip
Chronic trade deficits are no longer merely an economic problem — they’re a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life.
Marc Filippino
President Donald Trump made the announcement yesterday. He also said the US would impose a 10 per cent tariff on all countries, including the UK. Plus there will be a 25 per cent tariff on all foreign-made cars.
Donald Trump’s voice clip
We’re gonna be wealthy as a country because they’ve taken so much of our wealth away from us. We’re not gonna let that happen.
Marc Filippino
Trump made the announcement after the US trading day; markets had been bracing for the new levies, but they still sent US stock futures falling.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It’s been kind of a weird week for Elon Musk. The judicial candidate that Musk spent millions of dollars backing lost his state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin on Tuesday. And then yesterday, his company, Tesla, reported a big miss on deliveries. But the share price still ended the day up more than 5 per cent after a report out of Washington.
Here to explain what happened is the FT’s Stephen Morris. Hey, Stephen!
Stephen Morris
Hello.
Marc Filippino
All right, so first off, tell me about these delivery numbers, why were investors so bummed about them?
Stephen Morris
Well, people were very pessimistic, seeing sales figures come in from around the world, in particular in China, Europe, and the US. And as such, it adjusted their forecast downwards, but these undershot even those and they were the worst quarter for EV deliveries since 2022.
So they really disappointed already quite pessimistic forecast, which is why we saw an initially very negative reaction in the stock. And this contrasts very unfavourably with the rise of its biggest EV competitor — China’s BYD — which has regained its crown from Tesla as the world’s biggest selling EV maker, and is plotting a global expansion at the moment into some of Tesla’s core markets in Europe and the US.
Marc Filippino
Stephen, you mentioned the stock initially went down, but like I mentioned earlier, it sure did bounce back up, what got investors so excited?
Stephen Morris
Elon Musk is sort of a messianic figure out here in Silicon Valley. And many of the people that invest in the stock are doing it based on pure faith in his ability to transform industries. But what they are seeing is Elon Musk in Wisconsin trying to influence judicial races, Elon Musk in Washington trying to gut various government departments. What they’re not seeing is Elon in Texas driving performance at Tesla. And the shares have plunged since an initial post-election bounce in November.
So a report came out that after a slightly disastrous, you know, election result in Wisconsin, which was seen as sort of a referendum on Musk’s involvement in Donald Trump’s government. A report came out that Trump has told everyone that Elon’s gonna be leaving the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, sooner rather than later. So Tesla stock has risen on optimism that Musk might actually get back to his day job running Tesla, which is at the core of his vast fortune and business empire.
Marc Filippino
Now we should mention that Musk took to his social media site X yesterday to call this story which was initially reported by Politico, fake news. But Stephen, if Musk does turn his full attention back on to Tesla and you know his other companies too, will it really make an impact or is it too early to tell?
Stephen Morris
Musk’s personal brand has become incredibly divisive in the US and elsewhere. Largely due to his interventions in politics and his espousing of various right-wing views and conspiracy theories online. It seems to me that him just returning to Tesla won’t actually change the perception of the brand. What the investors in Tesla are hoping is the return of Musk will help them drive the next phase of its development, which Musk says is all about autonomy. It’s driverless, wheelless, cyber taxis being on the roads of Austin and San Francisco. But still remember, I mean, this is a company that I think it’s fair to say is in crisis now after all that’s been going on.
Marc Filippino
And Stephen, what other obstacles does Tesla face?
Stephen Morris
A sort of interesting corollary of Musk’s alliance with Donald Trump is that it now seems pretty set that much of the US government’s support — at least on a federal level — for, you know, transition to sort of cleaner vehicles, electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure needed to support them, that’s gonna be withdrawn. So in a way, Musk backing Trump, spending a quarter of a billion dollars to help him get elected, really has had a tangible impact on some of the economics of Tesla.
So whatever else happens when Musk comes back, if he is able to galvanise Tesla’s performance a bit, losing various federal and state incentives towards EVs and the infrastructure needed to support them is gonna make reviving Tesla that much more challenging, at least under a Trump administration.
Marc Filippino
Stephen Morris is the FT’s San Francisco bureau chief. Thanks, Stephen.
Stephen Morris
Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
A leading candidate to become the next president of France is out of the race, at least for now. Marine Le Pen is the country’s most well-known far-right leader, and she was primed to run in 2027. That was before she was banned on Monday.
Ben Hall is the FT’s Europe editor, and he joins me now. Hey, Ben!
Ben Hall
Hi.
Marc Filippino
So tell me about this Ben, what are the details?
Ben Hall
So Marine Le Pen was found guilty of embezzling actually European Union funds. The party — her Rassemblement National party — was found to have diverted about €4mn from EU funds into its National party operations. And it was deemed a fraud and a criminal case was brought against her. She was found guilty on Monday and was found to have played a central role in this systematic embezzlement. And the judge ruled her ineligible to run for public office for five years.
And I think this is the crucial bit, said that, that ban would have immediate effect. So this was a huge shock, I think, in the French political system. This is a sort of an earthquake which really will potentially shake up French politics in a way few people had envisaged.
Marc Filippino
And because of the magnitude of this, I’m curious about what the reaction in France has been.
Ben Hall
Well, let’s start with Le Pen and her party. I mean, the reaction was one of fury and outrage, attacking what they saw as a politicised judiciary, conspiracy to prevent her from running in the presidency and to prevent French voters from having their say.
What was perhaps more surprising was that there were quite a lot of criticism of the judgment from some mainstream politicians, the centre-right leader, the far-left leader — both of whom are strongly opposed to Marine Le Pen. And even from France’s prime minister in somewhat more muted terms, and he even suggested in the National Assembly that there should be a debate on whether they should change the law on this issue.
Marc Filippino
Do we know the next steps for how Le Pen and the RN plan to fight her ban?
Ben Hall
They will essentially appeal using all routes they possibly can. The main one will be to try and overturn the conviction. And France’s appeal court said on Tuesday that it would, in effect, expedite the process so that it should have a hearing in her case in the appeal court next spring and a ruling in the summer. And if they were to overturn the conviction or to lessen the penalty, she could then, of course, stand in the election.
In the meantime, I think she’s going to try and appeal to the constitutional council, which is in effect France’s Supreme Court, to try and overturn the immediate ban and I think she will even appeal to the European court of human rights.
Marc Filippino
So, Ben, let’s say the verdict is upheld and I’m, you know, let us talk about whether or not that is actually a likelihood, what does that mean for the future of Le Pen’s far-right party?
Ben Hall
Well, I think there are many legal experts who think that it probably will be upheld. And if the ruling is upheld and the penalty is upheld, then Rassemblement National has to find a new presidential candidate with less than a year to go before the election.
This would almost certainly be Jordan Bardella, who is actually the party head, but the sort of de facto number two, he has fervent support within the RN. But he’s also deemed to be pretty inexperienced, he’s only 29.
And also, if Bardella were to become the candidate, there’s always been a bit of speculation that he would sort of alter its policy and make it more right-wing actually on the economy and actually would look to build bridges with other centre-right and right-wing parties, a bit like Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.
Marc Filippino
That’s the FT’s Ben Hall. Thanks so much, Ben.
Ben Hall
Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Marc Filippino
You can read more on all these stories for free when you click the links in our show notes. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Check back tomorrow for the latest business news.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
