Noah BerlatskyFar right branding isn't a bad way to become a millionaire, if you get a little lucky. The problem for Musk is that a millionaire's income isn't sufficient. He can't fund Tesla with a YouTube channel.
MAGA assholes will throw money at a lot of things, but people don't generally buy luxury cars on a whim to prop up their favorite billionaire. and you need to sell a lot of t-shirts to equal one luxury car.
Peter Principle@nberlat Tesla also isn't some quasi penny stock like Game Stop or AMC that Space Karen's fanbois can manipulate to burn the shortsellers.
The downside for a true mega capitalist trying to play the MAGA pseudo-populist.
For Trump, the financial benefits ultimately outweighed the losses. For Elon, they never can -- at least not in economic terms.