Elon Musk said during a Tesla earnings call on Tuesday that he will spend “significantly” less time running the Department of Government Efficiency next month.
Tesla reported earnings down 71% from this time in 2024, and its stock has dropped 37% from the beginning of this year. The negative results that Musk’s company have suffered have been attributed by many to his political involvement, which has resulted in mass protests of the company.
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“Starting probably next month, May, my time obligation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Musk said in the earnings call.
Musk endorsed President Donald Trump in July 2024 after the assassination attempt against the president in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the Tesla CEO spent hundreds of millions to get Trump back in the White House. He’s since taken heavy involvement in the administration, leading the trimming of several agencies in his stated pursuit to save the government money.
The tech CEO, who also owns social media company X and rocket company SpaceX, said he’ll continue to spend a “day or two per week” on government issues “for as long as the president would like me to do so.”
“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 for as long as it is useful, but starting next month, I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done,” he said on Tuesday.
Musk claimed that the protests against Tesla are “very organized.”
“The protests that you’ll see out there, they’re very organized,” Musk said, claiming that some people are likely protesting “because they’re receiving fraudulent money” or are “recipients of wasteful largesse.”
The tariffs enforced by the Trump administration on China have had a large impact on Tesla, which sources a lot of its lithium iron phosphate battery cells used in its cars from the country. “We’re in the process of commissioning equipment for the local manufacturing of LFP battery cells in the U.S.,” he said, though he added that the company can “only serve a fraction of our total installed capacity” with its local equipment.
“We’ve also been working on securing additional supply chain from non-China-based suppliers, but it will take time,” he said. Musk added in the earnings call that tariff decisions are up to Trump but that he “listens to my advice.”
“I’ve been on the record many times saying that I believe lower tariffs are generally a good idea for prosperity,” he said. “But this decision is fundamentally up to the elected representative of the people being the president. So, you know, I’ll continue to advocate for lower tariffs rather than higher tariffs.”
Musk: I’ve been on the record many times saying that I believe lower tariffs are generally a good idea for prosperity. But this decision is fundamentally up to the elected representative of the people being the president. So, you know, I’ll continue to advocate for lower tariffs… pic.twitter.com/x93xA0nOvG
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 22, 2025
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Musk has taken an active role in the Trump administration and has campaigned or endorsed political candidates across the country. However, ever since his choice in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race lost earlier this month, he has been quieter.
His time in his role as a “special government employee” will also be up in late May or June as well given its 130-day time limit.