Once again, Americans have rejected Elon Musk’s dystopian vision for the future. But enough about the Cybertruck. Wisconsinites’ decisive rejection of Musk’s preferred candidate in Tuesday’s state supreme court election came after he rallied there, deployed the manic energy of his thumbs on X, and poured millions of dollars into the race, including handing out checks to voters. This political defeat should have nothing to do with the awful sales numbers that Tesla Inc. reported the following morning. And yet it does, because Musk has made it so.

That the numbers would be bad was baked in already by Wednesday. Plummeting sales figures out of Europe began ringing alarm bells weeks ago. Weakness in China, affirmed by figures for March that also landed on Wednesday, added to the malaise. Analysts had cut their estimate for first-quarter global vehicle deliveries to about 390,000, down from 469,000 just three months ago and more than half a million a year ago. They still didn’t cut enough, not by a long way.