Musk to scale back Doge role after 70% fall in Tesla profits

 
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced he will significantly scale back his involvement with the US government’s Department for Government Efficiency (Doge) following a steep decline in the electric carmaker’s financial performance.

The move comes after Tesla reported Tuesday that its profits for the first quarter of 2025 plummeted by more than 70% compared with the same period last year.

The company also saw a 20% drop in car sales year-on-year, contributing to what analysts describe as mounting problems for the automaker. In its update to investors, Tesla declined to offer a growth forecast and explicitly warned that “changing political sentiment” could meaningfully harm demand for its vehicles in the near term.

Musk, who has led the Doge advisory body tasked with cutting government spending and jobs since 2024, stated his “time allocation to Doge” would “drop significantly” starting next month. He anticipates spending only one to two days per week on the role, provided the president wishes him to continue and finds his contribution useful.

The billionaire’s high-profile political activities, including leading Doge within the Trump administration and reportedly contributing over a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump’s re-election, have courted controversy.

His involvement has triggered global protests and consumer boycotts against Tesla. While Musk acknowledged the “blowback,” he attributed it to attacks on him and his team, maintaining his government work was “critical” and now “mostly done.”

Tesla’s financial woes are compounded by other factors, including fierce competition and the impact of President Trump’s trade tariffs on Chinese goods, which affect Tesla’s supply chain costs despite localised vehicle assembly. Before the results, Tesla’s stock had already shed 37% of its value this year, reflecting investor concerns over the confluence of political controversy and market pressures facing the company.