Tesla’s board got serious about finding a new CEO after the company’s stock took a serious hit last month while Elon Musk was busy with DOGE.
Tesla board members reached out to multiple executive search firms to initiate the hunt for a new CEO as tensions mounted over the company’s plummeting stock price, sources familiar with the discussions told The Wall Street Journal.
The board’s search reportedly stemmed from concern—and in some cases, irritation—over Musk’s close involvement with the Trump administration as the leader of its divisive cost-cutting effort.
As sales and profits fell and Musk’s time in Washington rose, Tesla’s board met with Musk for an update, telling him that he needed to spend more time running the automaker, according to the Journal. They also told him to do so publicly—and he didn’t push back.
🚨 ELON MUSK: “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 being a country, United States to destruction. DOGE team… pic.twitter.com/m837NgU1w2
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) April 22, 2025
Tesla’s board narrowed its focus down to one executive search firm, the Journal reported. It is unclear whether Musk is aware of the effort or if his vow to spend more time at Tesla has affected the search.
In an earnings call with Tesla investors last month, Musk announced that he would scale back his time with DOGE to just one or two days a week starting in May.
“There’s been some blowback for the time that I’ve been spending in government with DOGE,” he said. “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, the United States, to destruction.”
The announcement came after Tesla reported that its profits had plummeted by 71% in the first quarter of 2025. The carmaker only earned $409 million in the first three months of the year, down from $1.4 billion over the same period in 2024.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Tesla and Musk’s lawyer for comment.
Even at DOGE, Musk has fallen short of his own projected savings.
The Penn Wharton Budget Model found that government spending rose by 6.3 percent or $156 billion since Trump returned to office in January, compared to the first four months of 2024, despite DOGE’s claimed savings of $160 billion.
At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump thanked Musk for the “tremendous” help as he acknowledged that it was time for the tech mogul to go.
“You know you’re invited to stay as long as you want,” the president told Musk. “He wants to get back home to his cars.”
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