The jury may be out on whether the US is better off or worse off after the Elon Musk-initiated series of spending and job cuts, but the adverse impact of his high-profile but controversial programmes on his electric vehicle company, Tesla, is quite evident and scathing.
Tesla reported a massive 71 per cent plunge in profits in the first quarter of 2025.
This seems to be the reason that prompted Musk to indicate that he will be spending less time in Washington, slashing government costs and more time running Tesla.
Musk shifts focus to Tesla
Musk said on a conference call with analysts on Tuesday that “now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done,” that he will be “allocating far more of my time to Tesla” starting in May, AP reported.
Musk said he now expects to spend just “a day or two per week on government matters”.
“I’ll have to continue doing it for I think the remainder of the president’s term just to make sure the waste and fraud that we stopped does not come roaring back, which it will do if it has the chance,” Musk said, according to Axios.
He added: “I think I’ll continue to spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it would be useful.”
Tesla’s financial struggles
The electric vehicle company struggled to sell vehicles as it faced angry protests over Musk’s leadership of DOGE, a jobs-cutting group that has divided the country.
The Austin, Texas, company reported a 71 per cent drop in profits and a 9 per cent decline in revenue for the first quarter.
“Investors wanted to see him recommit to Tesla,” said Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives. “This is a big step in the right direction.”
Investors sent the company shares up more than 5 per cent in after-hours trading, although they are still down more than 40 per cent for the year.
“There will be millions of Teslas operating autonomously in the second half of the year,” Musk said during the conference call.
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