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CNBC’s Jim Cramer sees Elon Musk‘s tweet poking fun at the Securities and Exchange Commission as erratic and deeply concerning, and he warns that this brand of continued obstinance could put Tesla on a bleak path.
“This is erratic behavior that rarely has been seen in the C-suite,” Cramer said Friday on “Squawk on the Street.” This kind of behavior “will not take this stock to $1 trillion,” he added.
Tesla shares slid 5 percent Friday morning a day after Musk mocked the SEC in late afternoon tweet, calling the agency the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission.”
Short sellers are traders who bet that a stock will go lower. Tesla is one of the most shorted stocks on Wall Street.
Musk’s tweet came days after the CEO settled SEC fraud charges and just hours after the federal judge charged with approving the settlement asked both sides to justify it.
Over the weekend, Musk reached an agreement with the SEC to settle charges stemming from the now-infamous Aug. 7 tweet about having “funding secured” to take the company private.
Cramer has previously suggested that Tesla’s board should put Musk on a short medical leave after weeks of what Cramer called “bizarre” behavior.
“This is not what a CEO should be doing,” the “Mad Money” host said Friday.
Tesla garnered lots of negative attention after the Aug. 7 tweet stunned the financial community and Washington regulators. He abandoned the take-private idea on Aug. 24.
Following a bizarre Aug. 16 interview with The New York Times, Musk’s actions were under scrutiny again last month after he appeared to smoke marijuana and drink whiskey during comedian Joe Rogan‘s podcast.
On Sept. 7, a day after the Rogan interview, Cramer said Musk’s marijuana “stunt” was ill-advised and cast serious doubts on his ability to run Tesla.
However, Musk had been acting erratically for months even before the take-private tweet and the subsequent interviews with the Times and Rogan.
Back in May, Musk rudely cut off analysts on Tesla’s first-quarter earnings call. He later apologized for that on the second-quarter call in August.
Tesla did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.