Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he could continue to work with the government’s Ministry of Effectiveness through the rest of President Donald Trump’s second mandate, in the midst of calling him to move away from politics.
Musk said he planned to reduce his role with Doge to a “day or two” per week from next month, “or as long as the president would like me to do it, and as long as he is useful.”
The executive comments on the call for Tesla’s quarterly profits, about an hour and a half after Tesla admitted to a shareholder letter that the “political feeling” affects sales of the company. Combined with other factors – including increased competition and Trump’s pricing disorder – Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration contributed to a 71% drop in the first quarter of last year.
Musk’s comments occur only a few days after one of Tesla’s biggest supporters to Wall Street said the company was in a “red code” situation if the CEO was not withdrawing from his government work.
The work that Musk has accomplished with Doge to Internationaling Government agencies and – in his words – nourishing one in “The Wood Chipper” led to global demonstrations against him and Tesla.
Musk tried the call on Tuesday to blame demonstrations as being “paid” without providing proof. He said that people present “protest because they receive fraudulent money, or waste recipients”, again without providing proof or trying to justify this line of thought.
Musk said that the “major work of the establishment” is over, which would allow it to withdraw its involvement. He is technically a “employee of the special government”, who is supposed to limit his work to 130 days over a period of 365 days. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
