Elon Musk has disclosed his upcoming direction within the Trump administration amid a downturn in Tesla’s earnings.
Upon his return to the presidency, Donald Trump aimed to revamp the US government, part of which included appointing Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with a mission to reduce excessive government expenditures—an objective that DOGE asserts it has accomplished.
The SpaceX CEO claimed that a total of $65 billion has been saved so far through different government cutbacks. Their website states these savings stem from ‘a combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment elimination, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions’.
However, as reported by several sources, verifying these figures has been challenging, and a report from last week indicated that almost $1 billion in savings had ‘disappeared’ overnight.
In addition, the billionaire has to manage Tesla, which is also encountering obstacles like vandalism of its vehicles and showrooms, as well as declining stock prices.
Considering all these factors, Musk has now revealed how he plans to manage his schedule moving forward.
During a company earnings call, Musk stated that his involvement with DOGE will be ‘significantly’ reduced from May onwards as he dedicates more attention to Tesla.
He further mentioned that he will continue to allocate ‘a day or two per week’ to government matters ‘for as long as the president would like me to do so’ (via CNBC).
Musk’s political engagement has stirred some debate.
Recently, Ross Gerber, one of Tesla’s early investors, openly suggested Musk should be replaced as CEO of Tesla due to his political commitments.
Speaking to Sky News, Gerber remarked: “The company’s reputation has just been destroyed by Elon Musk.
“Sales are plummeting so, yeah, it’s a crisis. You literally can’t sell the best product in the market place because the CEO is so divisive.
“It’s time for somebody to run Tesla. The business has been neglected for too long.”
According to Sky News, Tesla’s share price has fallen by more than 50 percent since December, with profits dropping by $981,000,000.
Apparently, Musk’s tenure was always intended to be temporary, with his leadership of DOGE set to last 130 days.
Both Trump and Musk have reportedly suggested a transition that would allow the Twitter owner to reduce his government involvement.
Fox News’ Bret Baier questioned him last month about his readiness to step down when his role concludes, to which Musk responded: “I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that time frame.”
Earlier this month, the 47th president remarked to reporters that ‘at some point Elon’s going to want to go back to his company’.