Elon Musk's Luck Runs Out

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The Atlantic

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

For a while, it seemed as if DOGE Elon and Tesla Elon could exist in the same space-time continuum. One of them carried out Donald Trump’s ruthless cost-cutting mission while the other pitched cars that appealed most to people who were highly likely to oppose that mission, or even rage against it. Then this week came Tesla’s first quarterly earnings report since Elon Musk started his work with DOGE, which showed that the company’s profits were down 71 percent from the same time last year. The Atlantic staff writer Charlie Warzel talks with Patrick George, editor in chief of InsideEVs, about how Musk found himself in this predicament. Further reading: Patrick George on how “Tesla’s Remarkably Bad Quarter Is Even Worse Than It Looks” Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:22.0	Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com
0:27.8	slash setup.
0:32.5	Growing backlash against Elon Musk and his new role in President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, also known as Doge.
0:44.7	Protesters taking out their anger on the Tesla car and owners were busy all over the country.
0:51.1	Tesla, the car company, Musk founded and runs, has seen its stock price fall dramatically, as you can see from this chart.
0:59.4	The moment of reckoning for Tesla's founder has arrived.
1:04.0	The company's earnings report showed that profits dropped 71% since this time last year.
1:10.2	On a call with investors this week, Musk announced that he would spend a day or two per week
1:15.2	on his Washington business, but that he would mostly turn his attention back to the struggling
1:19.8	company.
1:21.2	As Patrick George, the editor-in-chief of Inside EVs, wrote in the Atlantic this week, Luck runs out.
1:28.8	I think he thought he would come in and, you know,
1:30.8	gut the federal government and be seen as this great crusader
1:33.3	and that everything would have worked out great just the way it always has.
1:36.3	He's had all this success before, right?
1:38.4	But now, like, people are, you know, they're running away from this company.
1:42.8	And that might be the greatest failure of all here.
1:48.5	I'm Hannah Rosen.
	...

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