Musk’s Inner Circle Claims His DOGE Obsession Trumps Tesla Crisis No Matter How Bad It Gets

Elon Musk has no shortage of obsessions, but right now, one seems to be taking up most of his bandwidth—and no, it’s not Tesla. According to a person in Elon Musk’s inner circle, quoted by The Washington Post, “Elon thinks [DOGE] is the most important thing in the world to work on, and when he hyperfocuses on a goal, that’s what gets done. Nothing will pull him away unless he wants it to.”

Musk has a history of doubling down on whatever captures his attention, regardless of what’s happening behind the scenes. And lately, it’s hard to argue that Tesla’s been getting the lion’s share of his focus. The company that helped catapult Musk to billionaire status seems to be running on autopilot, while its CEO is off chasing other interests.

Tesla Takes a Back Seat

It’s no secret that Musk hasn’t put Tesla on the top of his priorities for the past few months. Actually, he’s been spending quite a lot of time making appearances, most of which were related to his new role as the head of the Department of Governmental Efficiency in the Trump administration. In fact, many Tesla fans started reaching out to him via X to ask what he’s been doing for the automaker recently.

Read: Tesla’s Q1 Sales May Be Its Worst In Years As Analysts Warn Stock Could Sink 50%

Perhaps that’s why he and President Donald Trump created a Tesla pop-up store at the White House last week. Regardless, the Washington Post writes that Musk is unlikely to change course based on that insider’s opinion. Musk’s own actions seem to confirm that story. Sales are down in several markets, as is the brand’s popularity – and we’re not talking about a couple of measly basis points either. In some places, like Germany, polls suggest that nine out of ten people are already swearing off of the brand.

“If in fact Tesla’s deliveries are down year over year, I think it is related to brand damage that’s happened,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management. “Because I think people have strong opinions about Elon and they’ve gotten even stronger over the past two months.” Those opinions have led to countless acts of vandalism, violence, and other protests across the world.

It’s worth pointing out in all of this that the Washington Post, the only source of this information to date, is owned by Musk’s rival Jeff Bezos. While it’s unclear if the Amazon CEO had anything to do with this particular report, he’s reportedly been known to take an active interest in the paper’s coverage. Regardless, the optics don’t lie: Tesla’s current slump suggests the company could use a little more attention from its CEO.