With Tesla stocks plunging, owners rushing to sell their vehicles, and protests against Elon Musk’s car company growing, it’s been a bad time for Tesla and its Trump-supporting CEO. And on Tuesday, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert used his monologue to break it all down.
“Here’s the thing. This downturn didn’t just start yesterday, because Tesla stock has plummeted 50 percent since December,” said Colbert. “And there’s a good reason for that. It’s a phenomenon economists call ‘Everyone Fucking Hates This Guy.'”
On Monday, Trump hit his own social media platform Truth Social to defend “Elon’s ‘baby'” and claim that people were trying to “illegally and collusively boycott Tesla.”
“How do you illegally boycott something?” said Colbert on The Late Show. “Buying things is optional. That’s why when you walk into a West Elm they don’t lock the door and say, ‘You want out? Then buy a fat candle with three wicks in it.'”
But the latest publicity stunt on Tuesday saw the U.S. president and Musk running a Tesla ad at the White House at which the president bought a $90,000 Tesla Model S Plaid — a model Trump marvelled over because “everything is computer.”
“Of course all of this was to shore up Elon’s fading brand and Trump almost got the name right,” said Colbert, before showing a clip of the president declaring, “I love Teslerr.”
