Elon Musk has said he will spend less time working with Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from next month – and he will focus more on Tesla.
The 53-year-old businessman is grappling with Tesla’s falling sales, so much so quarterly profits fell by 71% to $409million (£308million). However, Tesla’s challenges are partly due to Mr Trump’s tariffs.
Now, Mr Musk’s time working for his friend’s government will “drop significantly” from May. He said he will continue to spend a “day or two per week” on government issues “for as long as the president would like me to do so.”
But Tesla has faced a backlash over Mr Musk’s leadership of a federal government jobs-cutting group which has divided the country. Tesla’s revenue fell 9% to $19.3billion between January and March, below Wall Street’s forecast.
Tesla’s stock has fallen more than 40% this year but rose slightly in after-hours trading. Its stock value has been battered by the overall financial market turbulence caused by the global trade war tariffs sparked by stiff competition from Chinese EV maker BYD, and concern over Mr Musk’s ability to give Tesla the attention it requires.
Mr Musk’s role as chief executive of the company was among the most common questions shareholders were asking about in a question-and-answer portal ahead of an investor call on Tuesday evening.
After spending almost $300million (£226million) in the 2024 campaign to help return Trump to the White House, Mr Musk created DOGE and joined the administration with a mission to drastically reduce the size and capability of the federal government.
On its website, which was last updated on Sunday, DOGE says its cuts have led to an estimated $160billion (£120billion) in savings. However, Mr Musk’s estimates of savings have been challenged, and DOGE has deleted some of the largest purported savings.
Mr Trump last month bought a Tesla from Mr Musk as a counter to critics of his administration, who pledged to boycott the electric vehicle maker. He declared on X: “To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!”
He continued: “But the radical left lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the world’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby’, in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for.
“They tried to do it to me at the 2024 Presidential Ballot Box, but how did that work out? In any event, I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”
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