Elon Musk says he will soon reduce his time overseeing the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, a role that has taken a toll on his electric car and energy company, Tesla.
“The large slug of work necessary to get the DOGE team in place and working in the government to get the financial house in order is mostly done,” Musk said during a Tesla earnings call on Tuesday.
“And I think starting probably in the next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Musk continued, adding later, “I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla…”
BREAKING: Musk says he’ll be cutting down time at DOGE starting in May to dedicate more time to Tesla but will spend a couple of days at DOGE a week for Trump’s entire presidency.
“The large amount of work necessary to get the DOGE team in place… is mostly done.”
“Starting… pic.twitter.com/S6cy9kUB5m
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 22, 2025
Musk suggested that he will continue working in DOGE for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term, “a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so.”
Tesla reported a 71% earnings drop over the past three months when compared to the first quarter of last year. But the company’s stock rose approximately 5% in after-hours trading as Musk reassured investors.
“Musk just made a huge step forward on call. DOGE work basically ending (1-2 days a week)…now his focus back on Tesla. Street needed to hear this,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a post on X.
As the U.S. national debt approaches $37 trillion, Musk endeavored to remove $1 trillion from the federal budget. The Trump administration has cut jobs and programs across the bureaucracy with DOGE’s help.
However, Musk’s involvement with DOGE has sparked controversy, including protests at Tesla locations across the United States and abroad, as well as incidents that the FBI says have involved vandalism, arson, and gunfire.
Musk said DOGE has led to “some blowback,” but he stressed, “I think the work that we’re doing there is actually very important for trying to rein in the insane deficit that is leading our country, the United States, to destruction.”
DOGE has “made a lot of progress in addressing waste and fraud,” Musk said. He also noted it is “natural” that those receiving “wasteful dollars and the fraudulent dollars” would try to “attack” him and anything associated with him.
