Elon Musk says he will be stepping back from his controversial role for the Trump administration to spend more time running Tesla, after his electric vehicle company reported a big drop in profits.
Musk told investors on Tuesday that he would scale back his work at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to one or two days a week, from next month.
Speaking on a conference call, he said that “now that the major work of establishing Department of Government Efficiency is done”, he would allocating more of his time to Tesla from May, spending just “a day or two per week on government matters”.
Musk defended his work with DOGE, saying that it was necessary to cut back on “waste and fraud” as he urged investors to “look beyond the bumps and potholes immediately ahead of us.”
Tesla sales have fallen amid angry protests in the US Musk’s leadership of DOGE, a jobs-cutting body that has divided the country.
The company reported a 71% drop in profits and a 9% decline in revenue for the first quarter.
There has also been a sharp drop in sales in Europe, where Musk has also become politically active, supporting far-right political parties in Germany and the United Kingdom.
He revealed the change after Tesla reported that its quarter fell far short of forecasts and that the escalating trade war was muddying the company’s outlook for the rest of this year.
While Tesla is less exposed to tariffs than most other automakers, it said it would have to revisit its guidance because of current trade disputes.
“It is difficult to measure the impacts of shifting global trade policy on the automotive and energy supply chains, our cost structure and demand for durable goods and related services,” the company said.
Trump slapped tariffs on auto imports on April 3 and promised to put additional ones on parts in the coming months.
Tesla makes the cars it sells in the United States at American plants, so it is less exposed to tariffs on imported cars than other major automakers, but it does import parts for the cars it builds at its US factories.
Musk did not specifically blame Trump for the uncertainty about trade policy, although he did try to put some distance between himself and the administration on that issue.
“The tariff decision is entirely up to the President of the United States,” he said. “I will weigh in with my advice. I’ve been on the record many times saying lower tariffs are a good idea for prosperity. I’ll continue to advocate for lower tariffs rather than higher tariffs. That’s all I can do.”
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