In the wake of comments he made about taking joy in the falling price of shares in Tesla, the Elon Musk-led electric vehicle company that is currently facing a domestic terror campaign carried out by those furious over Elon’s work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), far-left Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz faced significant backlash. Now he’s trying to back peddle, freaking out over the criticism he received while playing down his own comments.
As background, what Walz said, during a town hall event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on March 19, 2025, was that he enjoys seeing the price of shares in Tesla fall dramatically as Tesla faces the terror attacks, which so far mostly consist of attacks on Tesla vehicles and dealers. Specifically, Walz said he gets a “boost” seeing it fall.
Making those horrid comments as the audience at the town hall erupted in cheers, Walz said, “Some of you know this. On the iPhone, they’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day — $225 and dropping.” Continuing, he said, “And if you own one, we’re not blaming you. You can take dental floss and pull the Tesla thing off.”
As could be expected, Walz immediately faced vituperative criticism for his remarks, particularly from the business community. Amongst those who slammed him was entrepreneur and CNN contributor Shermichael Singleton, who did so on CNN the same night. Beginning, Singleton said, “First of all, Tim Walz is a complete moron to me. I have to be very honest, and I’m not surprised why the American people did not choose him. Nothing against the vice president. With that said, Elon Musk employs 80 plus thousand Americans.”
Continuing, he added that the fall in the stock price significantly harms Americans, explaining, “Americans, most of them are working class people. The implications of the stock, let’s say this, were to continue on for another year. So I’m just throwing out a hypothetical. Will the company at some point have to decrease its work workplace? Most of those people, I would imagine, probably vote for Democrats, at least some of them. So now you’re impacting people who likely share your worldview because you disagree with Elon Musk.”
Predictably, Walz backtracked on his comments and tried to paint conservatives and entrepreneurs as the crazy ones. Doing so during yet another town hall, this one taking place in Rochester, Minnesota, on Saturday, March 22, he said that he was “just joking” and Republicans are unfairly criticizing him for his comments.
Snapping about the criticism he has faced, Governor Walz said that he was just making a joke about Tesla and Elon because Elon “bugs” him. Defending his being a “smarta**,” Walz said, “This guy bugs me in a way that’s probably unhealthy. I have to be careful about being a smarta**. I was making a joke.”
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He then attacked Republicans for not having enough of a sense of humor, snapping, “These people have no sense of humor. They are the most literal people.” He continued, on that same point, “But my point was, they’re all mad, and I said something I probably shouldn’t have about a company.” Watch him here: