| Thanks for reading Hyperdrive, Bloomberg’s newsletter on the future of the auto world. Musk’s Dark MAGA Hat Is Going Nowhere | If Tesla investors really believe Elon Musk is about to give up politicking and return to prior day jobs, then I’ve got a buoyant Cybertruck to sell them. The carmaker’s shares soared Wednesday — roaring back from an earlier intraday decline of more than 6% — after Politico reported that the Tesla CEO will soon step back from the roles he’s played for President Donald Trump. Tesla’s stock was slumping before the story because the company had just posted its worst quarter of vehicle deliveries since 2022. The shares maintained their rally even after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called Politico’s report “garbage” and Musk labeled it “fake news.” Given how bleak Tesla’s deliveries are, it stands to reason Musk would start to look for an exit ramp. And Trump did indicate only days ago that for one of his top advisers, duty calls. “I think he’s amazing, but I also think he’s got a big company to run,” Trump told reporters Monday in the Oval Office. “And so, at some point, he’s going to be going back.”  Musk and Trump at the Oval Office in February. Photographer: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images In light of all that, let’s play this out and say that Musk does, in fact, take some official step back soon. Will he really be able to help himself and make a clean break? This is the same person who once called hotel security around 3 a.m. to unlock a safe in which a Tesla board member had placed his phone to stop him from tweeting. The same person who’s trying to take over OpenAI more than seven years after he left its board. The same person who’s described himself as not just a micromanager, but a nanomanager. Color me skeptical that Musk will fully extract himself from an initiative he pitched to Trump, which also happens to be named after his favorite ironic cryptocurrency. Formally or informally, he’ll continue to advise and cheerlead for the administration via his social media platform and other means. If Musk eventually does decide to officially “take on a supporting role,” as Politico put it (again: does that really sound like him?) then Tesla investors ought to take it about as seriously their CEO insisting that the Cybertruck really can cross open water. They say hope floats, but Musk is in deep. - Teachers’ union urges public pensions to review their Tesla holdings.
- Shipments from Shanghai factory have fallen six months straight.
 Tractor trailers wait in line for inspection before crossing the Ysleta-Zaragoza International Bridge port of entry on the US-Mexico border Wednesday. Photographer: Justin Hamel/Bloomberg President Donald Trump is poised to to announce the biggest protectionist overhaul of the global trading system in more than 90 years during an event in the White House Rose Garden at 4 p.m. Washington time. Follow along via Bloomberg’s TOPLive blog and read more below. | 
