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At a recent White House event, Donald Trump told reporters that he hoped the stock price for Elon Musk’s Tesla would go up, but the president did not explicitly urge the public to purchase shares in the company.
A member of the Republican’s Cabinet, however, was far more direct. As The New York Times noted:
The commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, followed President Trump by supporting Elon Musk, urging people to buy shares in Tesla, Musk’s car company. ‘It’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap. It’ll never be this cheap again,’ Lutnick said Wednesday on Fox News. ... Tesla’s stock price has plummeted in the last two months as it faces backlash, including protests and vandalism, over Musk’s role in the Trump administration.
The Cabinet secretary did not appear to be kidding.
I’m mindful that breaches of norms and ethical limits have become routine over the last two months, but this was an egregious display, even by 2025 standards.
Right off the bat, let’s note that it’s not the commerce secretary’s job to give the public investment advice. But given the relevant circumstances, that’s where the problems start, not where they end. Making matters far worse, Lutnick — who was confirmed by the Senate and holds an important position of public trust — took it upon himself to urge a national television audience to buy a specific stock tied to the sitting president’s top campaign donor.
If his Democratic predecessor, Gina Raimondo, took such a step, urging Americans to buy stock in a company led by Joe Biden’s top campaign contributor, it seems likely that more than a few congressional Republicans would've called for her resignation.
Of course, Lutnick has plenty of company. Trump didn’t just give Musk enormous power in his administration, the president also hosted what was effectively an infomercial for Tesla on the White House South Lawn after the company’s stock value had dropped sharply.
More recently, Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared on Fox Business and declared, “If you’re gonna touch a Tesla, go to a dealership, do anything, you better watch out, because we’re coming after you.”
Soon after, The New York Times reported that Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Musk’s SpaceX, has been “routed through a White House data center.”
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Politico reported, “A top Commerce Department official sent a blistering email to his former colleagues on his way out the door Sunday warning that the Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich Elon Musk’s satellite internet company with money for rural broadband. The technology offered by Starlink, Musk’s company, is inferior, wrote Evan Feinman, who had directed the $42.5 billion broadband program for the past three years.”
If there’s a benign defense for all of this, I can’t think of it.