Tesla on Thursday denied a report suggesting it had launched the search process for a new CEO, just as founder Elon Musk gears up to relinquish his leadership role with the Department of Government Efficiency and exit President Trump’s White House.
“Earlier today, there was a media report erroneously claiming that the Tesla Board had contacted recruitment firms to initiate a CEO search at the company,” Tesla chair Robyn Denholm said in post shared to X.
“This is absolutely false (and this was communicated to the media before the report was published),” it continued. “The CEO of Tesla is Elon Musk and the Board is highly confident in his ability to continue executing on the exciting growth plan ahead.”
Denholm’s comment were in response to a Wall Street Journal report claiming Tesla’s board members in March had begun reaching out to executive search firms to find a replacement for 53-year-old Musk. It was not clear whether the efforts were carried out by individual members or if the board was acting as a collective. It is made up of only eight people, including Musk himself, his brother Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Musk also took to X to blast the WSJ story, calling the newspaper “trash.”
“It is an EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS that the WSJ would publish a DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE and fail to include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors,” he wrote.
The billionaire this week bid farewell to the White House with the intention of shifting focus back to his EV company, which has faced turmoil ever since he was named the head of DOGE, through which he has dramatically slashed the federal workforce.
During a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump thanked Musk for his service, which will continue, albeit in a limited capacity.
“You’re invited to stay as long as you want,” Trump said to the billionaire. “At some point, I guess, he wants to get back home to his cars.”
In addition to sliding shares and a slump in sales, Tesla has faced a wave of public backlash ranging from protests outside its properties to vandalism.
