The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has opened up yet another battlefront – hitting back as former US vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz dissed him over Tesla’s plunging shares.

Walz, the governor of Minnesota, told a meeting in Wisconsin on Tuesday (US time) that he regularly checks on the price of Tesla shares, which have crashed this year amid a string of vandalism and protests at Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration.

“On the iPhone, they’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day,” Walz said to cheers from the crowd at his “The People vs Musk” event.

“$225 and dropping!”

At their peak in December, Tesla shares were worth as much as $US480 ($A756).

The fall has more than halved Tesla’s market capitalisation from an all-time high of $US1.5 trillion on December 17, and erased most of the gains made after Donald Trump won the US presidential election in November.

As concerns rise about the shares, prominent Telsa investor Ross Gerber this week urged Musk to step down as CEO, citing his divided focus and growing political controversies.

Also on Tuesday, Walz also called Musk an “un-elected, South African, nepo-baby” – and encouraged disgruntled Tesla owners to make their feelings about Musk clear.

“If you own [a Tesla], we’re not blaming you. You can use dental floss and pull the Tesla thing off,” he said.

But Musk (somewhat predictably?) wasn’t about to let the slights go.

“Sometimes when I need a little boost, I look at the JDVance portrait in the White House and thank the Lord,” he wrote on his social media platform X shortly after.

The White House also backed the billionaire.

“When we need a little boost during the day at the White House, we walk around the corner from our office and admire these beautiful portraits,” Trump’s Rapid Response team wrote in an official social media post.

Senior Republican figure Ted Cruz said Walz was a “small, petty, vindictive, evil bastard” who “represents today’s Democrats well”.

The whole exchange comes amid increasingly violent protests at Telsa dealerships and factories, and a backlash against the electric vehicle maker.

Several Teslas were apparently fire-bombed at a collision centre in Las Vegas earlier this week in an incident that is being investigated as possible domestic terrorism.

“This level of violence is insane and deeply wrong,” Musk wrote on X after the fire-bombing early on Tuesday at a Tesla.

Last week, about 350 demonstrators protested outside a Tesla electric vehicle dealership in Portland, Oregon, while nine people were arrested at a raucous demonstration outside a New York City Tesla dealership earlier in March.

Tesla vehicles have also been vandalised on the streets, while some Tesla owners have added bumper stickers displaying sentiments such as “I bought it before Elon went nuts”.

Last week, a group that said it was behind Tesla Takedown protests said on social media platform Bluesky (a rival to Musk’s X) that it was peaceful and opposed violence.

“Peaceful protest on public property is not domestic terrorism. They are trying to intimidate us. We will not let them succeed,” the group said, calling for people to join the protests.

Great turnout at today’s Tesla Takedown in Encinitas. At least 300 people.

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— This is Steve (@akaraney.bsky.social) 16 March 2025 at 08:55

Trump could direct the US Justice Department to charge Tesla dealership vandals under terrorism statutes, though legal experts say it is unclear if the charges would hold up in court.

Defendants would likely argue that vandalising a car dealership does not meet the US government’s definition of terrorism: Violence aimed at intimidating or coercing a government or civilian population to advance political or social objectives.

-with AAP