Not stepping down, just ...: Elon Musk breaks silence on leaving DOGE

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has signaled a shift in his priorities, stating he will refocus his attention on the electric vehicle manufacturer. However, he also indicated a willingness to continue government work, contingent on President Trump's desire for his involvement, during an earnings call with analysts. Musk has also clarified on X that he is not stepping down.
Replying to a post on X, he clarified that he is just reducing time allocation at DOGE.
“He was always stepping down around this time, I thought?” a post read to which Musk replied, “Not stepping down, just reducing time allocation now that @DOGE is established.”

This comes amidst scrutiny of Musk’s role as a special government employee (SGE), a position that limits him to 130 days of government-related work annually. With approximately 36 weeks remaining in the year, Musk's potential time spent in his SGE role could range from 126 to 162 days, as per Fortune.

Musk’s decision to dedicate more time to Tesla follows mounting pressure from investors, who have urged him to prioritise the company's ambitious projects, including self-driving taxi fleets, humanoid robots, and unsupervised full self-driving technology.
During an earnings call with analysts, Musk pledged to heed these calls.
“Probably starting next month, in May, my time allocation at DOGE will drop significantly. I’ll have to continue doing it. I think we have the remainder of the President’s term just to make sure that the waste and fraud that we stopped does not come roaring back, which it’ll do if it has the chance,” Musk said.
He said that he will spend “a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the President would like me to do so, as long as it is useful.”
“But starting next month, I will be allocating far more of my time to Tesla now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done,” Musk noted.