Trump decision leaves Elon Musk in a serious bind

President Donald Trump recently thanked Musk for his service with DOGE.

Jun 4, 2025 - 00:14

Trump decision leaves Elon Musk in a serious bind

Fresh off of his recent departure from the White House, Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave CBS News an exclusive interview over the weekend.

He sported the same blackened right eye he had in the White House when President Donald Trump thanked him for his work with the Department of Government Efficiency on his way out the door.

Musk is returning to work full time at Tesla, leaving the side quest he has been on since January as the head of DOGE.

While Trump was effusive in his praise of his efforts, Musk's time in Washington was, at times, incredibly rocky.

While DOGE wasn't able to deliver on the cuts he initially promised, the work of non-government governmental agencies to root out fraud, waste, and abuse will continue as long as the president wishes it to. DOGE expects to cut at least $150 billion by 2026.

A couple of Trump's policies run counter to Elon Musk's own best interests, and Musk has had to learn an old Washington, D.C. maxim about toeing the party line.

Automotive and automotive parts tariffs directly affect Tesla's bottom line, and as a political neophyte, Musk originally addressed them the best way he knows how: on X.

Musk went after Trump advisor Peter Navarro, who returned fire on cable television. Before the weekend was over, the two men had a full-blown war of words, with Trump taking Navarro's side.

Wow. Elon is attacking Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro on the tariffs.

Musk lost $18 billion on Tesla stock alone this week. pic.twitter.com/jWxkapIPLG— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) April 5, 2025

Elon Musk says Trump puts him in a bind

This was Musk's first public spat with the administration, and for a while, Musk didn't mention any of the administration's policies he'd disagreed with in the past.

Although Musk entered the U.S. on a J-1 visa, which is often given to foreign nationals looking to further their studies in the States, he has been silent regarding Trump's attack on international students seeking to enter the country.

But as his time in Washington has concluded, he has become slightly more vocal on some issues.

Last week, he criticized the Republican spending bill making its way through Congress.

"I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing. I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it could be both," Musk said.

This weekend (June 1), fresh off of an exit interview in the Oval Office with the President, Musk was still sticking with the party line.

"It's not like I agree with everything the administration does...I mean, I agree with much of what the administration does, but we have differences of opinion on the things that I don't entirely agree with," he said in an interview with CBS News.

"But it's difficult for me to bring that up in an interview, because it creates a buildup of tension. So I'm stuck in a bind where I don't want to speak up against the administration, but I also don't want to take responsibility for everything the administration is doing."

Tesla needs Elon Musk back

A month ago, Tesla reported one of its worst quarters on record.

The company reported a 9% decline in first-quarter revenue to $19.3 billion, missing analyst estimates by $2 billion.

Earnings of 27 cents per share fell short of Wall Street expectations by 34%.

One of the issues during the period was cratering demand in Europe.

While only a small percentage of sales were made in Europe, it was a challenging region in the quarter. Sales in Germany reportedly fell 62%, and numbers in Norway, the UK, and France weren't much better.

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That trend has continued. Just this week, it was reported that Tesla's European sales dropped another 49% in April to 7,261, despite overall EV sales rising 34% in the region during the month, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.

Musk has admitted that his political activism has turned some people off from his products. But he also says that his activism has garnered him even more new fans from the opposite end of the political spectrum.

He recently spoke at the Qatar Economic Forum, saying that any politically left-leaning buyers who abandoned the company have been replaced by people who align more with his politics.

He punctuated his point by emphasizing that Tesla has no problem with demand.