Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars helping President Trump return to office, earning him a prominent position in the White House. His actions before and since that time have helped contribute to tumbling Tesla sales worldwide, but it appears his time running the cost-cutting DOGE organization is limited. Politico recently reported that Musk and the president have mutually decided that it will soon be time for the CEO to focus on his businesses and step into a supporting role.
The decision comes as Trump and his team have reportedly grown frustrated with Musk’s unpredictable behavior. That frustration came to a head earlier this week when a conservative judge supported by Musk lost a race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court by ten points. Despite that, the administration is unlikely to cut him off completely, with one source telling Politico that anyone believing he would become a nonissue is “fooling themselves.”
Publicly, Trump and his team have remained supportive of Musk, with the president saying earlier this week that “at some point Elon’s going to want to go back to his company. He wants to. I’d keep him as long as I could keep him.” The change is unlikely to do much to slow the criticism lobbed at Musk over his actions, and it will probably take time for car buyers to return to Tesla, but people have short memories, so anything is possible.
[Images: Andrew Harnik, Joshua Sukoff, Anthony Ricci via Shutterstock]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
