(Photo
by
Dimitrios
Kambouris/Getty
Images
for
The
Met
Museum/Vogue)
For
the
average
investor,
buying
individual
stocks
is
more
or
less
a
form
of
gambling.
That
being
said,
about
eight
years
ago
I
was
happy
to
gamble
on
a
few
shares
of
Tesla.
It
was
a
different
time
for
Tesla.
Elon
Musk
was
CEO,
but
he
was
ages
away
from
his
hard
rightward
turn,
his
purchase
of
Twitter,
and
all
his
latest
personal
dramas.
Car
production
was
ramping
up,
though
the
company
was
far
from
maturation.
There
were
many
ups
and
downs.
It
has
been
a
wild
few
years
for
Tesla.
I
still
own
those
shares,
and
despite
the
bumpy
ride,
overall
they
have
soared.
A
healthy
portion
of
the
gains
came
in
just
the
past
few
weeks.
The
Tesla
share
price
has
benefited
immensely
from
Donald
Trump’s
election
to
the
presidency.
Musk
poured
close
to
$200
million
into
Trump’s
election
war
chest.
He
also
offered
a
vast,
albeit
immeasurable,
in-kind
contribution
by
purchasing
Twitter
and
then
weaponizing
the
social
media
platform
throughout
its
rightward
slide
into
X.
In
return,
Musk
was
promised
an
important
role
in
the
new
administration.
Now
that
Musk
is
co-leading
what
Trump
is
calling
the
Department
of
Government
Efficiency
(which
is
not
a
real
government
department),
investors
seem
bullish
on
emerging
opportunities
that
can
further
increase
Musk’s
wealth
(much
of
which
is
held
in
Tesla
shares).
What
form
such
subsidization
might
take
when
it
comes
to
Tesla
is
unclear
at
this
point,
but
Trump
has
proven
willing
to
aim
the
money
spout
of
massive
government
graft
in
the
direction
of
his
friends
in
the
past.
However,
Tesla
investors,
myself
included,
best
take
heed
of
one
of
Trump’s
most
obvious
and
consistent
character
traits:
he
almost
always
alienates,
offends,
and
discards
his
closest
associates
and
allies.
According
to
an
analysis
by
the
Brookings
Institution,
the
rate
of
turnover
among
senior
level
advisors
to
Trump
during
his
first
term
reached
92%.
The
amount
of
turnover
within
Trump’s
cabinet
and
in
other
high-level
federal
government
positions
far
outpaced
the
turnover
rates
of
any
of
the
five
presidents
who
preceded
him.
As
we
saw
in
the
most
recent
election
cycle,
many
of
these
displaced
officials
didn’t
just
slink
away
into
the
night.
Some
of
the
people
who
had
been
closest
to
Trump,
from
his
former
chief
of
staff
to
his
former
press
secretary,
became
his
most
vocal
critics.
Also
worth
remembering
is
that
Musk
and
Trump
have
had
friction
before.
Back
in
2017,
Musk
joined
Trump’s
economic
advisory
council,
only
to
resign
a
few
months
later
after
Trump
announced
he
was
pulling
the
United
States
out
of
the
Paris
climate
accord.
Hard
to
believe
that
that
was
the
same
Musk
who
now
fawns
over
Trump
like
he
is
in
love,
but
it
happened.
Signs
of
tension
in
the
Musk-Trump
2.0
relationship
are
already
present.
Apparently
Musk
doesn’t
play
so
nice
with
some
of
the
lesser
MAGA
toadies.
Trump
has
reportedly
joked
several
times
(out
of
earshot
of
Musk)
about
the
tech
billionaire’s
ubiquitous
presence
at
Mar-a-Lago.
“Elon
won’t
go
home,”
said
Trump
to
a
meeting
of
House
Republicans.
“I
can’t
get
rid
of
him,
at
least
until
I
don’t
like
him.”
Yet,
there
remains
a
greasy
form
of
chemistry
between
the
two.
“I’m
for
electric
cars,
I
have
to
be
because
Elon
endorsed
me
very
strongly,”
Trump
told
a
Georgia
crowd
before
the
election.
Quite
a
flip-flop
from
a
man
who’d
previously
said
supporters
of
electric
vehicles
should
“rot
in
hell.”
At
the
close
of
trading
on
December
2,
Tesla
stock
was
up
by
about
40%
since
Election
Day,
with
many
analysts
predicting
further
gains
in
the
near
future.
As
long
as
this
dystopian
buddy
comedy
continues,
I’d
tend
to
agree
with
the
Tesla
bulls.
That
cautious
optimism
comes
with
a
huge
caveat.
Nobody
burns
through
confidants
like
Trump,
and
now
that
the
election
is
over,
Musk
needs
Trump
more
than
Trump
needs
Musk.
In
the
coming
months,
we
shall
see
if
Musk
is
equipped
to
solve
what
could
be
described
as
the
ultimate
engineering
challenge:
figuring
out
how
to
get
along
with
Donald
Trump.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD
(affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].