Steel and aluminum tariffs will hit all car manufacturers simultaneously.

If all cars are more expensive, and all manufacturers have lower margins Tesla will have lower margins too. For the stock price the competition won't be other car manufacturers but other industries.

It would be a "subsiding tide lowers all boats" kind of thing.

I've been thinking, when I younger and living in the UK, all sorts of things (including some with the word "tax" in them) were denounced by the local right wing as "stealth taxes".

Trump is talking about tariffs as if they're a tax on non-Americans, but they're paid for by Americans who import stuff, which is basically all Americans given where your oil, aluminium, and steel come from.

Those tariffs are a stealth tax.

Cutting subsidies would weaken Tesla's competitors (according to Musk)

Tesla- being more vertically integrated- stands to benefit from disproportionately increased costs for its competitors

Just because costs are higher for its competition doesn't mean that people are going to be buying more Teslas. Last I checked, Tesla was already down 40-60% in sales at its major European markets. They're getting absolutely slaughtered by BYD in China.

I mean as long as people are still buying cars, Tesla becomes more cost competitive. But in the short run it's not for consumers as much as it is for investors.

You may be right that Tesla will struggle internationally and the car market as a whole will struggle in USA