An early Tesla investor argued Wednesday that Elon Musk’s “abhorrent” political views have plummeted the brand’s reputation to a low point he won’t be able to save.
Ross Gerber, the CEO of an investment management company who claims to have been involved with Tesla for over a decade, sat down with CNN’s Boris Sanchez Wednesday to discuss Musk’s return to Tesla, the brand’s evolving reputation, and how President Donald Trump’s tariff war with China may affect the automotive company.
“He’s created a huge amount of brand damage,” Gerber said. “I think there’s a misperception that Elon has that he thinks that his actions within the government have created this brand damage. And that’s not correct.”
“It’s actually a combination of things led by his actual views about many people and topics that are abhorrent to many people,” he continued. “So I don’t think that [the Department of Government Efficiency] is the issue. Actually, it’s that people despise Elon Musk even more than they hate Trump. And that’s not something that he can solve at this point.”
The longtime Tesla investor also believes that Musk’s return to the company has been “overblown” and argued that he’s more concerned with building out his artificial intelligence company, xAI.
“I don’t necessarily think refocusing on Tesla is his main goal. It’s one of the things he will do along with building xAI,” Gerber said. “So I still think the same problems persist, irrelevant of where he spends his time.”
Gerber also argued that it’s possible Tesla might “end up being a pawn in this trade war that China hasn’t pulled out yet but certainly could be the next thing they pull,” adding that Tesla gets a lot of its battery materials from China.
It was revealed Tuesday that Tesla’s profits had fallen 71 percent in the first three months of 2025. Musk subsequently told investors during an earnings call that he would begin “significantly” limiting his work at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) starting May.
“Starting next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Musk said, according to CNN. “There’s been some blowback for the time that I’ve been spending in government with DOGE. I think the work that we’re doing there is actually very important for trying to bring in the insane deficit that is leading our country, United States, to destruction.”
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