Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday he plans to spend less time working on the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives to focus more on the electric vehicle manufacturer, which saw its sales plummet in the first quarter.
“Starting probably in [the] next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Musk said on a Tesla earnings call Tuesday evening. “I’ll have to continue doing it for, I think, the remainder of the president’s term just to make sure that the waste and fraud doesn’t come roaring back, which we’ll do, if it has the chance.”
The tech billionaire said he will likely spend one to two days of the week on “government matters” for “as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it is useful,” but noted the major work of establishing DOGE is done.
May 30 marks the end of Musk’s special government status and dozens of Democratic lawmakers called on Trump earlier this month to confirm Musk will leave his role in the administration by that date.
Tesla’s quarterly earnings dropped by 71 percent, the company announced Monday, falling to $409 million, or 12 cents a share. The company’s revenue fell 9 percent to $19.3 billion, far lower than analysts’ expectations.
The results come as Musk faces mounting scrutiny over his leadership of DOGE, which has involved mass layoffs at federal agencies and the gutting of federal spending programs.
“I believe the right thing here is to just fight the waste and fraud and get the country back on the right track and working together with President Trump and his administration, because if the ship of America goes down, we all go down with it, including Tesla and everyone else,” Musk told investors.
Musk’s comments about his time allotment come just hours after a group of eight Democratic state treasurers wrote to the chair of Tesla’s board about the company’s faltering performance.
In a letter to Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm, the treasurers voiced concerns that the company’s recent difficulties indicate “deeper governance and leadership challenges” that could ultimately impact their states.
“CEO Elon Musk continues to divide his attention across multiple companies and a high-profile advisory role within the federal government,” they wrote. “These external commitments raise serious questions about whether Tesla’s leadership is fully engaged in addressing the company’s core challenges.”
