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Elon Musk stays politically neutral this year with zero campaign contributions
His messages of support to Andrew Yang’s (and Kanye West’s) presidential bids aside, Elon Musk has remained rather silent about his stance on the upcoming 2020 US Presidential Elections as of late. Musk did note during his appearance at Kara Swisher’s Sway podcast in September that he would be watching the presidential debates, but apart from that, the CEO has been relatively quiet, instead focusing on Tesla and SpaceX’s projects, as well as his trademark humor, on Twitter.
Musk’s apparent intentions to remain politically neutral this year are highlighted by the fact that he has donated nothing to either presidential candidate to date. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is currently ranked as the 5th-richest person in the world with a net worth of $90.3 billion, but federal filings indicate that he has not sent any political donations at all this year. Musk’s last donation to a presidential candidate was posted five years ago, when he gave $5,000 to Hillary for America.
As noted by Forbes, Musk’s neutral stance on US politics this election cycle is quite interesting, especially considering that at least 100 billionaires and their spouses have made six-figure donations to committees supporting either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, the presidential candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties. A representative for Musk has declined to comment on the CEO’s political leanings.
Interestingly enough, Musk did catch some flak for his previous political donations in the past, particularly a $38,900 donation to GOP PAC Protect the House in 2018. What Musk’s critics seemed to have neglected to mention then was that the CEO also donated $70,300 combined to the Democratic Victory Fund, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee the same year.
This was highlighted by Musk on Twitter, when he debunked claims that he was a top donor to the GOP. “Reports that I am a top donor to GOP are categorically false. I am not a top donor to any political party,” he wrote.
Overall, 2020 marks the first year where Musk did not post any political contributions. Since becoming an American citizen in 2002, Musk has contributed to politics, though his donations have never broken the six-figure barrier until 2018. Since then, Musk had only donated $5,000 in January 2019 to SpaceX’s political action committee, the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. PAC, which has raised $667,010 since that date. It remains to be seen if Musk’s no-donation stance would continue in the coming years.
Musk is a registered independent, though he has attracted the ire of several politicians in recent months. At the same time, he has also garnered support from both sides of the aisle. This became particularly notable back in May when Musk’s efforts to reopen Tesla’s Fremont Factory received support from high-profile politicians from both the Republican and the Democratic parties. In the days leading up to the Fremont Factory’s reopening, for example, both US President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed their support for the CEO’s initiative.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner in Los Angeles dominated the company’s global usage rankings after just one year, proving the concept is more than just a one-off novelty location that will fade away.
The performance could incite the company to build more locations, something that CEO Elon Musk has hinted at for some time.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner delivered 21.2 GWh of energy in its first year of operation, the company’s head of Charging, Max de Zegher, revealed on X. Of the top 10 most utilized Supercharger locations in Tesla’s global infrastructure, the Diner in Los Angeles was the most used by drivers, and it wasn’t particularly close:
Tesla Diner opened exactly 1 year ago. Inspiring that futuristic places like this exist.
It’s our highest usage Supercharger in the world: 21.2 GWh delivered in a year, 1.6k sessions/day.
Top 10 Superchargers by energy delivered: https://t.co/9YvJ8lw696 pic.twitter.com/koB3AUJHws
— Max (@MdeZegher) July 21, 2026
On its launch day one year ago, nobody was too sure what the Tesla Diner would be about. It seemed like an interesting concept, and considering it had been in the works for years, it was a highly anticipated launch that many were looking forward to.
Based on its success, we could see additional Diners with Superchargers built throughout the United States, and potentially beyond. Musk has said on several occasions that the company would be willing to bring the Diner idea to more markets.
Tesla makes major change at Supercharger Diner amid epic demand
Of the markets that Musk has mentioned, both Palo Alto and Austin have come to be perceived as ideal selections. However, there are no concrete plans as of now to build new Supercharger Diners anywhere; the location on Santa Monica Boulevard will remain the exclusive spot to pick up Tesla-inspired eats, at least for the time being.
Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.
Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.
Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.
However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.
S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.
Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
Tesla’s long-standing saga regarding its door handles and a manual release has entered its latest chapter, and as a result, a big change is coming.
On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied Tesla’s petition that was seeking a defect investigation into roughly 180,000 Model 3 vehicles for an issue involving the emergency mechanical door release.
🚨 The NHTSA denied a petition from Tesla that would have thrown out concerns regarding its door handles.
NHTSA said Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect warranting an investigation. The agency said a rulemaking process would be a better strategy. pic.twitter.com/j6PzUBM1mT
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 24, 2026
NHTSA said that Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect in the door handles or their emergency releases. Instead, the agency determined that it would rather solve the issue of the lack of labeling or location of emergency mechanical door releases and the federal safety rules that govern them.
Essentially, the NHTSA wants to create and enforce rules that would require automakers to make emergency door latch releases more clearly labeled in a car. Despite a Tesla having manual door releases on all four passenger doors, many people do not know they exist or how they work.
Tesla addresses door handle complaints with simple engineering fix
In recent times, Tesla has faced some criticism involving its door handles, specifically because some occupants have reported that they are unable to exit their vehicles after losing power. The door handles on a Tesla are electronically operated, but in the event that the 12V battery dies, there is a manual release that can be used.
The NHTSA only identified a single complaint involving the mechanical door releases: a 2022 Model 3 owner said the release was concealed and unlabeled after the vehicle lost power after a front-end collision. It has also already started to create a separate rulemaking process to make emergency door-egress systems more obvious.
It should be noted that all Teslas have mechanical emergency door releases, but they are placed in various locations as the vehicles have aged and been redesigned from year to year. Refer to the safety manual for your vehicle if you have any confusion about where the emergency releases are and how they work.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations
Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings
