Elon Musk's 2025: From Trump Power Broker To Tesla Turmoil

Whether it’s bold predictions or political commentary, billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX, as well as the world’s richest person, has been in the headlines this year for a multitude of reasons.

With Tesla's Robotics push and SpaceX's looming IPO, 2025 has proven to be a pivotal year for the 54-year-old businessman. Let's take a look at Musk's 2025.

Elon Musk Was Instrumental For Trump's Reelection

The billionaire was instrumental in securing President Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 Presidential Election, becoming a part of Trump's inner circle. Musk had bankrolled the Trump campaign and reportedly spent close to $250 million in funding in the run-up to the election.

For his part, in the early days of Trump's second term, Musk was tasked with leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside GOP lawmaker Vivek Ramaswamy, a non-governmental body that would cut down on excess federal spending by introducing budget cuts and cutting down on Federal workforces, among other things.

At the time, Musk had touted that he could cut down close to $2 trillion in Federal spending via DOGE. Fast forward to the end of 2025, though, and DOGE has claimed it saved close to $175 billion, far less than what was claimed. Musk's efforts to cut down on spending, especially funding cuts for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), have been at the receiving end of criticism.

Falling Out With Trump

Despite sharing a close relationship, cracks began to emerge between Musk and Trump following the latter’s taking office at the White House.

At the center of the feud was Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, which introduced several policy changes detrimental to Musk's businesses, like Tesla, which also benefited from policies like the $7,500 Federal EV Credit as well as relaxed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards.

The administration also effectively shut down the ZEV credit sales, which were a crucial source of revenue for companies like Tesla, which made over $2.7 billion in ZEV credit sales. Musk eventually exited the DOGE.

The feud resulted in back-and-forth between the pair on social media, with Musk, at one point, attacking Trump over his alleged ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as touting his own political party to counter Trump, dubbed the America Party as an alternative to the two-party system in the U.S., with the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

Musk was also snubbed by Trump from the White House Rose Garden dinner, making him the most high-profile omission. The event's guest list comprised Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Founder Bill Gates, OpenAI‘s Sam Altman, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook, Meta Platforms Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:META) Mark Zuckerberg, among others.

However, the relationship between the pair has improved since then, with Musk back in Trump's inner circle. "I like Elon a lot; he really helped during the election with his endorsement," Musk said in a recent White House press briefing, signaling that all was well between the two.

Tesla's CEO Pay Package

Another major part of Musk's year was the buzz around the CEO compensation award. While Tesla shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favor of a trillion-dollar pay package for Musk in November, despite receiving significant opposition from major investors, proxy advisory firms and analysts.

The package is a performance-based award, which would compensate Musk as Tesla hits the various milestones outlined in the package.

Notably, the CEO's previous $56 billion pay package, which was struck down by a Delaware Court, was also recently reinstated by the court. Musk's stake in Tesla, if he chooses to exercise all stock options tied to the 2018 plan, would increase from about 12.4% to roughly 18.1% of the company’s expanded share base.

Falling Sales Amid Political Activism

While the pay package proved to be a massive win for Musk, his political activities have also impacted the EV giant's sales, as well as the brand image among consumers, negatively. Most recent data suggests that Tesla's November U.S. sales fell 23% and Tesla has also consistently recorded declines in the European market.

Tesla's Cybertruck, which has been touted by Musk as the automaker's best vehicle, has also seen lackluster sales. During Q3 2025, Tesla sold just 5,385 Cybertruck units in the U.S., representing a 62.6% YoY decline. Tesla also recently released Q4 delivery estimates, which were lower than market expectations. Despite it all, Tesla is currently the most valuable automaker in the world.

Robotaxi Claims

Meanwhile, another highlight of Musk's year has been Tesla's Robotaxi operations, which first kicked off in Austin earlier this year in the presence of an onboard safety operator.

Musk had earlier predicted that Tesla Robotaxis would be able to serve half of the U.S. population, but then backed off on the prediction, touting Robotaxi operations in 8-10 major cities.

Since then, the billionaire has touted driverless Robotaxi operations, but Tesla has enjoyed marginal success in demonstrating the technology, with doubts over the Full Self-Driving system's vision-based approach.

However, Musk recently claimed that he was driven around autonomously in Austin, signaling that autonomy could be closer than ever for the automaker. It's worth noting that Tesla's Robotaxi has been a subject of scrutiny by authorities as well as critics, with the NHTSA launching a probe into the service earlier this year.

SpaceX’s Long-Awaited IPO

On the other hand, Musk's commercial space flight giant SpaceX is also reportedly gearing up for an IPO next year, with the company eyeing a possible valuation of up to $1.5 trillion. SpaceX has enjoyed success in the space flight industry and is a crucial element in NASA's Artemis mission to the moon.

SpaceX would also be expecting to enjoy a boost in its Moon and Mars efforts, as a close Musk ally, Jared Isaacman, who was the former CEO of Shift4 Payments Inc. (NASDAQ:FOUR), was named by Trump as NASA's Administrator despite earlier withdrawing his nomination.

Elon Musk's Net Worth, Future Prospects

Finally, Musk's net worth has been a constant in the headlines this year. Forbes estimates that the billionaire's current net worth is close to $730 billion, while Bloomberg speculates it’s close to $623 billion, with a $190 billion change in his net worth since the start of the year, at the time of writing this article.

Tesla is worth over $1.6 trillion, while SpaceX could be worth close to the same. The pay package approved by Tesla shareholders could also pave the way for Musk to become the first-ever trillionaire in history.

With Musk's focus back on Tesla amid a change in the automaker's mission statement to "amazing abundance," and an autonomous driving and Robotics push, which is coinciding with the anticipation of SpaceX's public listing, 2026 is poised to be an eventful year for Musk. All that remains to be seen is just exactly how eventful the future will be.

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