Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has disclosed that he will start pulling back from his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) starting in May.
In a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said that the work necessary to get the government’s “financial house in order is mostly done.” He said, “Starting probably next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly.”
He stated that he would allocate “far more” of his time to running Tesla and cut back his work at DOGE to one or two days per week continuing to do what he referred to as “critical work for as long as the President would like me to do so and as long as it is useful.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, defended his work with DOGE, saying that his efforts were aimed at fighting fraud and waste and getting “the country back on the right track.” “If the ship of America goes down, we all go down with it, including Tesla and everyone else,” he said.
Musk is scheduled to leave DOGE on May 30, a strict 130-day cap on his service as a special government employee.
Tesla Profits Sink
Musk’s remarks came as Tesla reported a massive dip in both profits and revenues in the first quarter of 2025 amid backlash against his role in the White House.
Tesla saw a 9% drop in revenue year over year in the first quarter of 2025. The company brought in $19.3bn in revenue, well below Wall Street expectations of $21.45bn. The company reported an earnings per share of 27 cents, also well under investor expectations of 43 cents in earnings per share.
Tesla profits also slid 71% to $409m compared with $1.39bn in net income the previous year.
The company suffered a 13% drop in vehicle deliveries, making it the company’s worst quarter since 2022. Tesla closed the quarter with 336,681 vehicles delivered.
Though Musk acknowledged there have been “rocky moments” of late, he remained optimistic about the company’s future.
“The future for Tesla is better than ever.The value of the company is delivering sustainable abundance with our affordable AI-powered robots. If you say, what’s the ideal future that you can imagine, that’s what you’d want.
“You’d want abundance for all in a way that’s sustainable, that’s good for the environment. Basically this is a happy future, this is the happiest future you can imagine.”
Elon Musk
That “happy future” includes the company’s plans for fully self-driving cars, said the billionaire CEO as he laid out an ambitious timeline for when he expects the vehicles to hit US roads in some cities – “by the end of the year.”
Tesla has historically struggled to meet timelines Musk has publicly set for the launch of new products, especially when it comes to self-driving.
“The acid test is, can you go to sleep in your car and wake up in your destination and I’m confident that will be available in many cities in the US by the end of this year.”
Elon Musk
This would be on top of the Robotaxi service the company plans to roll out in June. “I predict that there will be millions of Teslas operating fully autonomously in the second half of next year,” Musk said.
Analysts attribute the company’s overall difficulties to a number of factors, but ultimately conclude Musk’s role in the White House has caused a branding crisis for Tesla.
The company is at a major crossroads, analysts say, that will only be remedied if Musk leaves his role in DOGE and returns to Tesla as CEO full time.
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