Elon Musk told Fox Business in an interview that aired Monday he was running his various businesses “with great difficulty,” making the statement as Tesla shares fell to a five-month low and while he spends time as a key figurehead in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow asked Musk in an interview how he is running his other businesses while simultaneously dedicating time to politics and DOGE, to which Musk replied, “With great difficulty,” before taking a long pause and sighing.
“But there’s no turning back, you’re saying?” Kudlow then asked, drawing another pause from Musk, who then said he is “just here trying to make government more efficient, eliminate waste and fraud and so far we’re making good progress.”
Musk did not provide specifics on how he is running businesses he serves as CEO of, like SpaceX, xAI and Tesla, the latter company of which traded down over 15% on Monday, sending shares to a low not seen since Oct. 23.
Musk, who said in a Monday tweet Tesla would “be fine long-term,” experienced a $22.8 billion drop in his estimated net worth down to $319.6 billion Monday, though he is still by far the wealthiest person in the world, exceeding the estimated net worths of the next wealthiest people: Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos ($210.8 billion) and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($206.7 billion).
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Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller, oversees employee pension funds that own $1.25 billion worth of Tesla shares, according to The New York Times, which was told by Lander, “We don’t have a C.E.O. who is fully focused on ensuring that Tesla remains a leader in the E.V. space.” Lander also told the Times he wanted Musk to pass his CEO duties to a full-time employee.
Musk has become a key White House figure since President Donald Trump began his term in January, attending press briefings alongside Trump and a Cabinet meeting last month and describing his role in government as “tech support.” The billionaire consistently tweets and talks about the work of DOGE, a government agency he unofficially heads that has pushed for government spending cuts and layoffs. Concerns about Musk’s time for the companies he heads or has co-founded were also made public when the billionaire took over Twitter, now known as X, for $44 billion in 2022. Some Tesla investors even pushed Musk to exit the deal for the social media platform as the value of the electric vehicle company was slashed by about 30% after the acquisition was initiated. (Forbes)