‘What the Heck is Elon Musk Doing?!’ Fox Business Hosts Call Out Tesla CEO

Several Fox Business hosts called out Elon Musk for mixed messaging over the billionaire Tesla CEO’s latest comments about hiring at his electric car company and his new threat to terminate the $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter.

On Saturday, Musk backtracked on an email he sent to Tesla staff last week promising steep cuts — about 10 percent of the company’s workforce — over a “super bad feeling” about the economy.

“Total headcount will increase, but salaried should be fairly flat,” Musk wrote on Twitter, in an apparent reversal of the Friday email.

The u-turn prompted Fox Business hosts to question the billionaire who has become a hero on the right thanks to his criticism of Twitter and pledge to improve free speech on the platform.

“What the heck is going on?” Fox anchor Dagen McDowell asked on Monday morning.

Network contributor Liz Peek argued Musk is seeking to avoid further hits to Tesla’s stock.

“Tesla stock got pretty beaten up after that announcement that he was laying people off because it suggests a slowdown in orders and in sales,” Peek said. “His stock is down 30% from the high recently and that’s cutting into his overall financial plan to take over Twitter.”

“He can’t really allow Tesla stock to get much lower,” she added.

Later in the morning, McDowell turned to another analyst and asked: “What the heck is Elon Musk doing? Get his story straight.”

“First of all, is this not one of the worst announcements of layoffs in history?” said tech analyst Pete Pachel. “There’s a reason companies usually execute the layoffs at the time they announce it. It’s tough and it’s hard, but at least you’re not in limbo. Can you imagine working at Tesla now not knowing whether you’re going to have a job in a few weeks?”

McDowell added that Musk is “all over the place” with his messaging on the Tesla layoffs.

Fox Business host Stuart Varney also took Musk to task for mixed messaging with regards to Tesla and his bid to buy Twitter.

Musk threatened to scrap the $44 billion acquisition deal on Monday morning, arguing the social media platform is in “clear material breach” by withholding information on spam bot accounts.

“He’s been threatening a lot of things lately,” said Fox Business anchor and correspondent Lauren Simonetti.

“If you work at Tesla — what the heck?” Simonetti said. “Particularly if you’re a worker there what do you do with all of this.”

“No idea, but he’s all over the place on these things,” Varney said with a sigh. “I think some people are getting a little annoyed at him, for these constant tweets which throw everybody into confusion.”

“And it’s effecting two companies,” Simonetti added. “It’s effecting Twitter, which is down 5%, because he has a deal to buy it, and it’s effecting Tesla.”

Watch above, via Fox Business.