Tesla reported lower than expected earnings on Tuesday, with first-quarter profits dropping 71% on much lower sales of electric vehicles. The news isn’t altogether surprising, given the fact that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the public face of the company and continues to help President Donald Trump destroy the U.S. federal government while peddling far-right extremism on his social media platform X.
Musk tried to put a slightly rosier spin on the state of his EV company in an earnings call Tuesday, but he still sounded very depressed. The billionaire’s tone was subdued as he emphasized the autonomous taxi rides that he would be launching in Texas this June wouldn’t be the Cybercab vehicles many people on social media had expected. The company will only be operating Tesla Model Ys to pick up passengers, deflating news for some who had hoped Musk might deliver something unique.
Tesla reported $19.3 billion in revenue in the first quarter, down 9% compared with the same period a year earlier. The company produced 362,000 vehicles and delivered over 336,000. Deliveries of Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y were down 12%. While the company doesn’t break out official figures for the Cybertruck, the product bucket that includes that truck was down 24%, perhaps because it’s the vehicle most associated with Musk’s brand of fascism.
The Cybertruck started deliveries in late 2023, after Musk had begun expressing racist and antisemitic ideas. Consumers likely assume anyone with a Cybertruck is fully on board with Musk’s agenda, while owners of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles are given a bit more leeway since the cars predate the billionaire oligarch unmasking himself as an overt villain.
Tesla reported adjusted earnings-per-share of 27 cents, far lower than expectations from analysts of 41 cents. The only bright spot in the company’s numbers were the $595 million in revenue brought in from carbon credits, the money paid by car companies making traditional gas-powered vehicles to offset the pollution they generate. Without those carbon credits, Tesla would’ve posted an operating loss for the quarter.
As the Wall Street Journal notes, Tesla is facing a future of high tariffs if President Trump’s ridiculously high taxes on imported goods remain. The cars that Tesla sells in the U.S. are manufactured in California and Texas, but many of the parts are imported from other countries and hit with 25% tariffs. Musk has been outspoken against tariffs and stressed on Tuesday’s earnings call that he was “one of many advisors to the president, I’m not the president.”
Musk often tries to distract from bad news with splashy announcements. As one example, Reuters reported back in April 2024 that Tesla was planning to pivot away from producing a cheaper, long-anticipated $25,000 vehicle. After that report came out, Musk rushed out an announcement that he would produce a robotaxi, an event that was delayed from that summer to the fall of 2024. The actual unveiling was underwhelming to say the least, with some highly deceptive magic tricks, and Musk continues to promise big things about his Cybercab while we all wait. Musk insisted Tuesday that there will be fully autonomous taxi rides in Austin, Texas, by June, they just won’t be Cybercabs.
“The Teslas that will be fully autonomous in June in Austin will be Model Ys, so that is currently on track to be able to do paid rides, fully autonomously in June, and then to be in many other cities in the U.S. by the end of this year,” Musk said on the call.
Many people had previously taken his announcement about the Austin launch as a sign that he would be deploying the Cybercabs he announced back in October 2024. But it will take years and possibly decades for the Cybercab to become a reality at scale, if they ever do, according to most autonomous driving experts.
Musk received a question from an analyst on the earnings call about details involving the kind of remote control that may be needed to operate his robotaxi service, but he seemed extremely reluctant to explain. “It’s only a couple months away. So you can just see for yourself in a couple months in Austin,” Musk said.
The earnings call on Tuesday was perhaps notable for having far less hype than usual. Yes, Musk tried to promise that his Optimus robots would be operating in Tesla factories by the end of 2025. And he made some other vague futuristic promises about full self-driving in the coming years. But Musk’s tone was noticeably downbeat and he didn’t have the same carnival-style salesmanship that often accompanies any public facing announcement for Tesla.
Tesla dealerships and showrooms have been the site of mass protests across the country since Musk launched DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. There have also been cases of vandalism and arson, with some people facing federal terrorism charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. Musk insisted on the earnings call that protest against him are “very organized” and “paid for,” repeating suggestions he’s made previously about shadowy financiers who are supposedly funding demonstrations. Musk also said the “real reason” there are protests against him is that people who are receiving fraudulent money from government agencies that are now getting cut. Musk has never provided any evidence for this assertion.
Notably, Musk said he would be stepping back from DOGE after May but didn’t go into any detail about what that would mean. Even though he said he would be easing up on his involvement, the billionaire said that he would remain in the government through President Trump’s entire term, which is only supposed to last four years. Trump has said repeatedly he’d like to stay in office beyond that, which would be flatly unconstitutional.
In his relatively short time in government, Musk has helped destroyed vital services and unlawfully abolished the United States Agency for International Development. DOGE has been credited with laying off over 280,000 people at 27 different government agencies, according to CBS News, and Musk has been particularly heartless to those people, insisting they should get “real jobs.”
Musk and DOGE don’t actually have the legal authority to do almost any of this so-called cost-cutting, since Congress alone has the sole authority to create agencies, allocate funds, and take those funds away when it decides to do so. But that hasn’t stopped Musk, who seems to believe he can unilaterally cut anything he wants.
Incredibly, DOGE is reportedly not even doing much to cut actual spending by the U.S. government, according to the New York Times. How could that be? Well, the vast majority of federal spending is on things like the U.S. military, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. And while there has been some proposals to cut programs at the Pentagon, that’s money which will reportedly be spent on Trump’s pet projects like the Golden Dome missile defense program. Cuts to programs like Social Security have been relatively modest so far but they’re already causing longer wait times for seniors trying to get help over the phone. And there’s no telling what they’ll cut next after the congressional Republicans try to take their ax to Medicaid with their latest budget bill.
Musk, along with Trump, has helped what the billionaire oligarch has repeatedly called a revolution. But it’s such an anti-human attack on anything good in America, that it’s no wonder consumers have decided maybe buying a Tesla isn’t for them.
