Add This to the Stock Market Mount Rushmore of “Why Did You Say That?” Moments

By Stocks News   |   1 month ago   |   Stock Market News
Add This to the Stock Market Mount Rushmore of “Why Did You Say That?” Moments

We’ve got another classic case of someone in high power doing something stupid. Normally, it’s a CEO evaporating their company’s stock price with an insider trading scandal, or a board member greenlighting a $46 billion metaverse project that looks like it was built in The Sims. But this time, it’s a politician. And before you ask… no, this isn’t some partisan hit piece. If a Republican had done the same thing, we’d be roasting them too. Stupidity doesn’t check party lines.

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This one stars Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who also happens to be floating around as a potential 2028 presidential contender. Walz recently decided to take a public swing at Tesla… and somehow managed to miss Elon Musk entirely and instead body-slam his own state’s finances.

Now, Tesla has easily been one of the most political stocks of the decade. Doesn’t matter if you're left, right, or hiding in the libertarian woods with a ham radio… say “Elon Musk” and someone’s gonna either name their kid after him or try to light a Model 3 on fire. Literally. Teslas have been torched in protest of Elon’s politics and cost-cutting crusades, especially since he joined Trump’s administration as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

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But Walz took the Tesla-hate a step further… and straight into foot-in-mouth territory. During a Wisconsin town hall, Walz proudly declared that he checks Tesla’s stock when he wants to feel better: “On the iPhone, they’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day… $225 and dropping.” The crowd laughed. The internet did not.

Because here’s the thing… the Minnesota state employee pension fund owns 1.6 million shares of Tesla stock. That little dopamine hit on Walz’s iPhone? It’s potentially cost Minnesotans $300 million in value this year. Tesla is down 29% YTD. The people getting hurt aren’t just a bunch of idiots on reddit (although that’s some of them)... that’s the financial future for teachers, firefighters, and civil servants who probably don’t care if Elon’s posting memes or launching rockets… they just want their pensions to show up.

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There’s a long, proud history of people in power saying things they immediately regret… or should regret. Remember BP CEO Tony Hayward whining that he “wants his life back” while oil was still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico? Not exactly the PR move you want during an environmental catastrophe.

Or how about Gerald Ratner, the British jeweler who once proudly told a crowd that his own company’s products were “total crap”? He wiped out $750 million in market value overnight. Congrats, Gerald. You played yourself.

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Let’s not forget Steve Ballmer, who laughed off the iPhone in 2007 because it didn’t have a physical keyboard. That joke has now cost Microsoft trillions in market share and aged about as well as milk in a sauna. So no, this isn’t about politics. It’s about saying something so poorly timed, so poorly thought-out, and so ironically self-sabotaging… that Kevin O’Leary of all people went on CNN and called it “beyond stupid.”

“What’s the matter with that guy? He didn’t check the well-being of his own constituents.” (As someone who handed Sam Bankman Fried millions of his own money, he would know).

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After the backlash, Walz tried to walk it back, saying he was just “being a smarta!@,” and that people “have no sense of humor.” Here’s the problem, Tim… you’re not on stage at a comedy club. You’re the governor of a state that just lost hundreds of millions (in part because of the same stock you joked about watching crash for fun).

In this situation, celebrating Tesla’s collapse because you don’t like the CEO is like cheering for turbulence because you hate the pilot. You're still on the plane, my guy.

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And while Elon is probably on X right now posting cryptic memes and dunking on journalists, he’s not the one getting burned here. It’s regular Minnesotans. Over a million of them are exposed to Tesla through their retirement funds. They’re the ones who’ll feel this in the long run… not Musk, not Trump, not AOC (or whatever politician you want to name) and not a town hall crowd in Wisconsin.

So yeah… this whole saga feels like if Michael Scott ran for president, mocked Dunder Mifflin’s stock price during a rally… and then realized his 401(k) is 90% paper.

P.S. Just when you thought our beloved congressmen couldn’t get any greasier, one Republican lawmaker decided to YOLO $175k into a stock… right before a major FDIC announcement hit. Lucky timing? Insider edge? You be the judge. We broke it all down inside this week's Stocks.News premium article… click here to check it out ASAP

Stock.News has positions in Tesla and Microsoft.

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