Elon Musk’s Twitter account has provoked a backlash from investors over the years. The entrepreneur, who is Tesla’s CEO, has visited the social media platform to talk about his business, his mind about existing events and more.
Its diversity of tweets, from disconcerting to funny, strange and with a wide variety of themes. In recent years, his comments on Tesla’s social media have shocked him with the Securities and Exchange Commission, starting with the notorious tweet “Safe Financing”.
But even a lawsuit and settlement haven’t stopped Musk from tweeting about Tesla, the SEC, or his thoughts about the coronavirus pandemic. He even recently weighed in on rapper Kanye West’s announcement that he will run for president of the United States in 2020, telling West “you have my full support.”
Read more: “We may have an explosion”: well-known investor Jim Rogers explains how central bank “madness” caused the inventory market to collapse
This year, Musk’s tweets come in the midst of a searing rally for Tesla shares, which in early July were up more than 200% year-to-date. While Tesla was not immune to the coronavirus pandemic market meltdown in March, it quickly recovered its losses and surged higher on positive vehicle delivery numbers.
Here are Musk’s most moot tweets about Tesla, its inventory value and the inventory market.
Musk took to Twitter before the Fourth of July holiday to mock the Securities and Exchange Commission and short-sellers with a pair of silky red shorts that went up for sale on Tesla’s website.
“Tesla will make fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim,” Musk tweeted, adding, “Will send some to the Shortseller Enrichment Commission to comfort them through these difficult times.”
The same day, he tweeted another jab at the SEC – “SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon’s.”
Musk tweeted “lol” on June 11, drawing some confusion from followers wondering what he was referring to. He later clarified that his tweet was indeed about the stock market, or as he said, “stonks.”
In a May 1 tweet, Musk announced that Tesla’s percentage was worth it.
“Tesla’s percentage value is too high in my opinion,” Musk tweeted. He also tweeted that he would sell “almost all physical properties” and that he would own any house.
Shares of Tesla sank as much as 13% in one day following the tweet.
Musk has been very candid about the coronavirus pandemic and field shelter orders, as Tesla’s plants have been affected by orders in the United States and China that have closed non-central corporations to curb COVID-19.
He even voiced his discontent for the crisis amid a major market meltdown that ended the longest-ever bull market in history.
In March, he tweeted “the coronavirus panic is stupid” amid a market defeat that ended on March 23.
Since, US stocks have largely recovered from March lows, and Tesla’s stock price has also continued to surge higher.
Musk’s contact with the SEC intensified when he tweeted in February 2019 that Tesla would earn 500,000 that year.
“Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019,” he tweeted.
He returned to Twitter later that day to clarify his earlier tweet. “Meant to say annualized production rate at end of 2019 probably around 500k, ie 10k cars/week,” he said. “Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k.”
Shortly after, the SEC said that Musk had misled investors with the tweets and violated the terms of their settlement. The two parties eventually reached a new agreement that clarified from the original order what Musk couldn’t communicate without getting approval.
Musk didn’t back down from the SEC even after being fined $20 million for his tweets. In October 2018, he mocked the Securities and Exchange Commission, calling it the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission” in a tweet.
“Just want to that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work. And the name change is so on point!” said Musk.
The tweet that started it all. On August 7, 2018, Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share, and that he had “funding secured” for it.
In the days and weeks after, it became more clear that Musk did not actually have funding secured to take Tesla private, sending shares lower and stoking investor pessimism.
The SEC began looking into the tweet in August and in September 2018 officially filed a lawsuit accusing Musk of making “false and misleading statements” in the August 7 tweet.
Musk and the SEC settled less than two days later in a deal where Tesla and Musk each paid $20 million. Musk also stepped down as chairman of Tesla’s board, and agreed to have some tweets about Tesla approved before sending.