According to recent reports, Elon Musk has 130 days to serve as a special employee under DOGE federal program. For the remaining four years of Trump’s tenure, he just promised to spend “a day or two” every week. Although Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, said he would likely continue to work for the government as long as President Trump asked him to, he declared on Tuesday that he will return his focus to the electric vehicle manufacturer. Musk can serve in the SGE position for a total of 126-162 days with approximately 36 weeks remaining in the year.
After 130 days, Elon Musk has abruptly left Trump’s DOGE role, and these are the main reasons
Elon Musk’s ambitious ideas for self-driving taxi fleets, humanoid robots, and unsupervised full self-driving technology have been met with cries from Tesla investors for him to return his attention to the electric automobile giant. Last but not least, Musk promised to spend more time at Tesla, where he serves as CEO, and less time at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on an earnings call with analysts on Tuesday. In addition, Elon Musk, who believes that the president’s term will prevent waste and fraud if it occurs, plans to significantly reduce his time at DOGE starting in May. According to Musk, he will dedicate one or two days a week to government work, as long as the president requests it and it is beneficial. But now that the Department of Government Efficiency’s key task is over, I will be dedicating a lot more of my time to Tesla starting next month, Elon Musk said.
Nevertheless, Tesla’s CEO failed to comply with the 130-day out-of-365-day time limit for his work as a special government employee (SGE). To stay within the restrictions, however, he will need to be careful about how he spends his Trump days. Given that Elon Musk has already spent around 90 days as an SGE, spending one or two days a week with about 36 weeks left in the year might end up costing him 126 to 162 days in total. Because he is not compelled to disclose his financial information to the public as a regular government employee, Musk can serve on boards and in other capacities. Musk has a tight relationship with Tesla as well as several privately held businesses that he started, such as SpaceX, X, the Boring Company, Neuralink, and xAI.
Even though Elon Musk’s involvement with Trump was unclear, investors in Tesla viewed his decision as a positive step for the struggling carmaker. Tesla stock fell more than 5% in after-hours trading after Elon Musk’s comments made national news. Even as Tesla reported another underwhelming quarter for investors, with declining operating income, net income, and operating margins, the bump occurred. It is important to note that energy revenues increased 67% to $2.73 billion, while total revenues decreased 9% to $19 billion. Tesla also had over $37 billion in cash on hand, which was 38% more than the previous year.
Tesla’s stock performance has concerned millions of stockholders
Ahead of its quarterly earnings calls, Tesla’s investor relations team answers questions from the countless retail shareholders who own the company’s stock. Three of Tesla’s largest shareholders have raised concerns about Elon Musk’s government involvement and the company’s protection measures. For instance, one shareholder, holding more than 87,000 shares, thinks that Musk’s involvement in changes to the federal government services and employment has caused boycotts, protests, vandalism, negative headlines, and a stock decline, suggesting Tesla’s board is considering leaving government to elected politicians.
Another shareholder, holding 365,000 shares, inquired about the company’s plans for handling the fallout from Elon’s alliance with the current government. The third most upvoted question, involving Tesla’s involvement with the federal government, aimed to understand the company’s response to the increased attacks on the brand and its efforts to educate the public about its benefits.
