'Significant setbacks': Inside the world's richest man's terrible week

From March 10-14 week, billionaire Elon Musk was inundated with terrible headlines.

Musk, according to the New York Times, had a heated argument with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. And the SpaceX/Tesla/X.com head continued to draw widespread criticism over mass layoffs of federal government workers being carried out by the Trump Administration with the help of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk heads.

Tesla, meanwhile, was rocked by protests and boycotts — not because of its vehicles, but because of DOGE's activities and Musk's far-right MAGA politics.

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Journalist Nick Robins-Early describes Musk's bad week in an op-ed published by The Guardian on March 15.

"Elon Musk began the week of 10 March with a friendly sit-down interview on Fox Business to talk about his work with the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE) and the state of his businesses," Robins-Early observes. "Already, it had been a trying few days for the world's richest man, who was facing a Tesla stock selloff and fierce backlash over his attempts to radically overhaul the federal government. His net worth declined over $22bn on Monday alone."

The "past 10 days," Robins-Early notes, brought Musk his "most significant setbacks" in "months."

"Tesla, arguably his marquee company, continued to fall in value as investors worried about the threat of trade war and possible recession — as well as declining profits," Robins-Early explains. "Escalating protests against the company over the billionaire's role in the government also grew in number and intensity across the U.S., coupled with rising cases of vandalism and social stigma against his cars."

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The journalist adds, "SpaceX has also struggled, with one of its rockets dramatically exploding in midflight last week and then an announcement on Wednesday, (March 12), that it was delaying a rescue mission to retrieve 'stranded' astronauts."

On top of all that, Robins-Early notes, X.com (formerly Twitter) suffered "widespread outages" — which Musk attributed to a "massive cyberattack."

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Nick Robins-Early's full op-ed for The Guardian is available at this link.