With plummeting stocks, recalls and vandalism on his plate at Tesla, Elon Musk is not laughing.
The DOGE mastermind and X owner took to his own social platform on Thursday to slam Jimmy Kimmel as “such an unfunny jerk” after the comedian poked fun at Tesla’s recent misfortune on his talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“Our co-president Elon Musk sent a Space-X vehicle to bring the astronauts back, and when they landed, he fired them immediately upon landing,” said Kimmel as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues cutting jobs.
“Tesla stock is way down, almost disastrously so,” he said to cheers from the live audience. “People have been vandalizing Tesla vehicles, new Tesla vehicles. Please, don’t vandalize, don’t ever vandalize Tesla vehicles.”
Kimmel then paused and slightly raised his eyebrows at the camera, earning Musk’s ire on X.
Musk’s response came as Tesla recalled 46,000 Cybertrucks after a cosmetic panel has been known to fall off the vehicle. Meanwhile, the company’s stock has dropped at least 53% since experiencing record highs in December, and numerous Tesla cars and charging stations across the country have become the targets of arson.
Musk has since called the attacks “shocking,” claiming he’s “never done anything harmful, I’ve only done productive things,” despite widespread criticism of his apparent government overreach as Trump’s senior advisor.
“It’s really come as quite a shock to me, this violence from the left,” added Musk on Fox News. “I thought the Democrats were supposed to be the party of empathy, the party of caring, and yet they’re burning down cars, and firing bullets into dealerships.”
The State Department previously abandoned a planned $400 million contract for a fleet of armored Teslas after Trump tapped Musk as his advisor.
