Alex Brandon/AP
Amid plunging stock prices and a staggering 71 percent profit drop, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pivoting back to his day job. “My time obligation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Musk told investors Tuesday after the company’s Q1 earnings report attributed a “changing political sentiment,” among other factors, for a precipitous drop in business.
The report did not go into specifics. It declined to highlight Musk’s singular role in decimating the federal government, flirting with Nazi salutes, trying—and failing—to buy a state Supreme Court seat. Nor did the report directly refer to the hundreds of protests that have popped up outside Tesla dealerships around the country. The embrace of the middle finger to bully Cybertruck drivers? That certainly wasn’t mentioned either.
Investors who called in on Tuesday, perhaps encouraged to hear that Musk would be scaling back his near lock-step partnership with President Donald Trump, were all but certain to be disappointed. In the same earnings call, Musk, unasked about the protests, reportedly volunteered to talk about the demonstrations himself, claiming, without evidence, that they were being “paid for.” Musk also took to X to exhibit the same noxious behavior that has become synonymous with Tesla, re-posting content in support of the AfD, Germany’s far-right political party, and space travel to Mars. Elsewhere, a former Tesla engineer accused Musk of threatening to deport an entire team at the company after the engineer, Cristina Balan, had broached Musk with her concerns over Tesla’s brake safety.
So, will Musk’s pledge to cut back on DOGE make Tesla great again? Judging by the billionaire’s compulsive inability to stop posting, coupled with China’s immense investment in the electric car market at a time when the global economic order is being rapidly upended, I wouldn’t bet that this is the company’s white knight moment.
