Tesla profits drop 71% amid anti-Musk backlash
www.yahoo.com
Tesla's profits fell 71% over the first three months of this year, a company earnings release on Tuesday showed. The new financial details arrive as some shareholders have called on Musk -- whose temporary status as a government employee expires next month -- to step down from his White House role and return full-time to the helm of Tesla. Opening his company's earnings call on Tuesday, Musk defended the work he was doing with the Department of Government Efficiency and commented on the Tesla protests, saying, without evidence, that the protesters were demonstrating because they were “receiving fraudulent money.”

He then called the DOGE work necessary but said that “working for the government to get the financial house in order is mostly done.”

“I think starting probably next month in May, my time allocation to those will drop significantly,” he said.

He added that he expected to keep working for the government one or two days a week for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s presidency to “make sure that the waste and fraud that we stopped does not come roaring back.” DOGE has not yet proved the fraud it alleges.

  • Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    7 hours ago

    I think you might have your dates mixed up a little bit. Musk attached himself to Trump because he saw that Trump was popular and influential, and wanted some of that for himself. He hitched his wagon to a winning horse so to speak. Trump was already doing well. I wouldn’t describe him as the primary force behind Trump winning at all. Trump largely won due to a flaccid and incompetent campaign by the dems. And Musk could’ve spent billions backing any republican he wanted, but that wouldn’t mean that they would win. When it came to internal polls of the republican party, Trump wasn’t just ahead, he always had a supermajority, and this was before Elon got involved as well.

    • jecxjo@midwest.socialEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      Yes Trump has a following and is a force by himself. But Trump can’t carry the entire Republican party. We saw it in all the races he tried to sway besides his own. With his current poll numbers and the Republics not doing anything to fix all this chaos, Trump isn’t going to be able to keep midterms going his way by calling all the candidates stupid names.

      I’m saying that Musk provided funding to make sure things finished the way they wanted party wide. If Trump pisses off Musk enough with a fraction of 1% of his worth he could take out any Republic midterm contest. Musk can find legitimate political scientists and fund them to swing a lot of elections. Where as Trump seems to only be able to find the most incompetent to work for him.

      • Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        6 hours ago

        I agree fully with this:

        Where as Trump seems to only be able to find the most incompetent to work for him.

        I just think it includes Musk. He’s an absolute dipshit, he isn’t some mastermind pulling the strings. If Trump pisses off Musk enough he’ll rant about it on twitter. I just don’t see him as capable of organising a proper “revenge plan” that isn’t just two pathetic manchildren complaining about each other.

        Musk can find legitimate political scientists and fund them to swing a lot of elections.

        And I have no idea what this means. If he’s bribing political scientists to say what he wants, I wouldn’t exactly call them legitimate. And since when do political scientists swing elections? If you’ve ever met someone with a political science degree you’d know they’re some of the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet. They just say who they want to win and then make up bullshit to justify their opinion. There’s no “science” involved at any point.

        Overall I just don’t think you’re really reinforcing your point here. Trump won just fine without Musk before, so why is Musk suddenly vital? I think he is useful to Trump, sure, but he isn’t this cornerstone piece of the Trump administration that Trump is too scared of to ever say anything about. Honestly I think Trump is too dumb and egotistical to ever have anyone like that.