Why did Elon Musk fire Don Lemon and why is Tesla stock falling?
The Don Lemon-Elon Musk partnership has officially soured. But that’s not all. It’s been a week of sour lemons for Elon Musk, especially as it regards his electric vehicle maker Tesla.
Lemon, a former CNN anchor, announced that Musk abruptly texted him “contract terminated,” hours after the duo filmed an interview meant to be the debut of Lemon’s new talk show that would exclusively air on Musk’s social platform X.
The move marks another blow to Musk, whose Tesla seems to face new declines in its stock price daily, losing over $25 billion in value the day of the Lemon interview, which extended past $30 billion in post-market trading. Since March 1, Tesla’s market cap has shed over $100 billion, and it’s not clear where the bottom is.
In January, Tesla said its growth will be “notably lower” this year, and lately, analysts and investors have just piled on more bad reviews. A wave of analysts are suddenly warning of risks to the Tesla sales outlook as the company’s strategy to slash prices is wearing out its use. Evercore, for instance, wrote in a note that the company is likely years away from fully integrating a lower-cost model, calling Tesla a “2027 story.”
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan wrote to clients Wednesday that the electric vehicle maker’s growth in core markets has moderated, downgrading the stock to the equivalent of a sell rating. He expects Tesla’s sales to be flat this year and fall in 2025. To stick the knife in, he wrote that Tesla is a “growth company with no growth.”
The night before Lemon and Musk’s interview, Lemon had put out a teaser. “Elon Musk like you’ve never seen him before,” he wrote on X. “You won’t want to miss.”
But hours after the interview, both men’s tunes had changed. Musk announced that “after careful consideration” he “decided not to enter into a commercial partnership” with Lemon’s show. Lemon’s response to Musk was terse: “You canceled my contract after our interview. I don’t think you believe in free speech.”
Lemon’s questions covered a lot of ground. He wanted to know if hate speech is a problem on X and whether Musk himself has any responsibility in it, citing Musk’s claims that white Americans are being purposefully replaced by immigrants in a plot to shift political power away from white people, known as the Great Replacement Theory.
The conversation covered everything from “SpaceX to the presidential election,” Lemon wrote in a statement. He also asked about Musk’s use of the drug ketamine as it relates to global security clearance. On his drug use, Musk said there were no concerns because he has a prescription for it.
After his firing, Lemon said in a post that Musk’s “commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me.”
Musk has since claimed that Lemon was essentially a puppet for former CNN chief Jeff Zucker. “His approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media,” Musk wrote. “Instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity.”
The talk show deal was first announced in January as part of X’s plans to feature more video content and gather more big-name hosts on the platform. It was set to air three, 30-minute episodes a week, the Guardian reported.
Lemon’s show will still debut with the interview and will air on March 18 on YouTube, podcast streaming services and X. But the exclusive partnership, once sweet, is now bitter—or even sour.
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