Elon Musk on Thursday blasted The Wall Street Journal over a report that Tesla’s board of directors is looking to recruit a new chief executive to replace the billionaire in the top job.
The Journal on Wednesday reported that “about a month ago” Tesla’s board started reaching out to recruiting firms to formalize a process to find a new CEO. The company continues to face massive challenges as evidenced by its disastrous first-quarter earnings.
Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm signed a post on Tesla’s account on X, formerly Twitter, dismissing the Journal’s report as “absolutely false,” claiming “this was communicated to the media before the report was published.”
“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,” she wrote.
The Journal has not addressed Denholm’s statement as of Thursday morning.
Denholm sold over $32 million worth of Tesla shares on Tuesday, Securities and Exchange Commission filings cited by Electrek show, fueling speculation about her own future on the board.
In the meantime, Musk cited Denholm’s words, while blasting the Journal for publishing its story.
“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 on X.
The Journal’s report, however, noted that Musk did not return its requests for comment prior to publication.
Tesla released its first-quarter financial results last week, showing its total revenue for the first three months of 2025 fell 9.4% from the year prior, missing Wall Street expectations by about $1.8 billion.
During the earnings call, Musk said he would start spending less time running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has wreaked havoc on the federal government in its effort to dramatically downsize it.
“The large slug of work necessary to get the DOGE team in place and working with the government to get the financial house in order is mostly done, and I think starting probably next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” he said.
His comments seemed to also align with a request by Tesla’s board about a month ago for him to spend more time running the company and make that known publicly, according to the Journal.
Tesla appears to have suffered as Musk prioritized his work for Trump.
In an interview with major newspapers and TV networks, Musk claimed DOGE has made savings of $160 billion, according to The New York Times, which noted that the cost-cutting initiative’s “wall of receipts” accounts for only a fraction of that.
During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Donald Trump praised Musk — a top surrogate for him on the 2024 campaign trail — for what he described as his “fantastic” work in government.
“You really have sacrificed a lot, been treated very unfairly,” Trump said.
“You’re invited to stay as long as you want,” the president continued. “At some point, I guess, he wants to get back home to his cars.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the value of the Tesla shares Robyn Denholm sold Tuesday. They were worth $32 million.