Stephen Colbert again ensnared himself a bit with embattled Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday, teasing the world’s richest man for losing a reported $170 billion in the 2022 calendar year.
Walking through the day’s headlines in his “Late Show” segment, Meanwhile, Colbert got to Musk, saying, “After a series of very public setbacks, Elon Musk’s 2022 wealth loss exceeds $100 billion.”
The live studio audience erupted into applause before Colbert offered him some comfort and advice.
“Listen, Elon: I know belt tightening is no fun, but you’re not alone in these tough economic times! OK? All of us are having to cut back on how many we shoot into space.”
Musk remains the richest man in the world with a net worth of $169.8 billion, according to Bloomberg and its Billionaires Index. But the CEO, age 51, has lost a reported $169.8 billion in the past calendar year after taking a $8.6 billion hit Monday. For 2022, he’s down $100.5 billion after reaching a personal-best $340 billion a little more than a year ago, Bloomberg reported.
Twitter isn’t the only company of Musk’s giving him strife.
Shares of Musk’s Tesla, which make up most of his wealth, are trading at their lowest level since November 2020, thanks to a string of challenges for the electric-car maker. Those include supply-chain problems and high material costs, COVID-related issues in China, and a taillight recall that affected more than 300,000 cars. As a result, Tesla shares have plummeted 57.52% in the past year. After dropping 6.8% in New York trading Monday, TSLA rebounded slightly Tuesday to close up 1.22% at 169.91.
Colbert also mocked Musk earlier this week for Twitter’s nosedive of advertisers, joking that Musk’s SpaceX, thankfully, is still sticking to their “big advertising campaign on Twitter.”
“Yes, Elon’s SpaceX is gonna save Elon’s Twitter. And Elon’s solar panel company is gonna save Elon’s Tesla,” Colbert said, before breaking out into a “Lion King”-inspired riff on the song “Circle of Life,” aptly quoted here as, “It’s the circle of jerk!”
Jeremy Bailey contributed to this story.
