A judge in Delaware on Monday once again blocked a massive, multibillion dollar pay package for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, siding with the plaintiffs who argued that Musk’s salary was not in company shareholders’ best interest.
Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ruled that Musk’s pay package—which is based on the company’s stock price and is currently valued at around $101 billion—was negotiated by a board that was too close to Musk.
“There were undoubtedly a range of healthy amounts that the Board could have decided to pay Musk,” McCormick wrote in her opinion, according to CNN. “Instead, the Board capitulated to Musk’s terms and then failed to prove that those terms were entirely fair.”
The news comes as Musk has been trying to be Donald Trump’s best buddy, even abandoning his 12 children from three different women to spend Thanksgiving with Trump at the garish Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
In fact, Musk has spent most of his time since the Nov. 5 election at Mar-a-Lago, acting as a sort of shadow president, sitting in on Trump’s calls with world leaders and trying to influence Trump’s administration picks.
Trump has been publicly embracing Musk, tasking him with finding ways to slash the federal budget. Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency for Musk, which is basically a glorified advisory committee that has a super cringe name that plays off Musk’s crypto coin called Doge.
But privately Musk’s super-cringey, socially awkward behavior (he’s calling himself the “first buddy,” yes, really) seems to be wearing thin.
The Washington Post reported in November that “people are not happy” with Musk acting as a “co-president” to Trump.
Trump even made a backhanded joke at Musk’s expense, with The Hill reporting that Trump said on Nov. 14: “Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him. Until I don’t like him.”
Musk’s time in the Trump orbit may go the way of his Tesla pay package: up in smoke.
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