The article, headlined “The Decline and Fall of Elon Musk” mentions an unverified incident, a dramatic confrontation between Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the White House:
“F*** you! F*** you! F*** you! Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was shouting at Elon Musk in the halls of the West Wing last month, loud enough for Donald Trump to hear and in a language that he could certainly understand,” the Atlantic article narrated. “Bessent and Musk were fighting over which of them should choose the next IRS leader—and, implicitly, over Musk’s bureaucracy-be-damned crusade. Without securing the Treasury chief’s sign-off, Musk had pushed through his own pick for the job. Bessent was, quite obviously, not having it. The fight had started outside the Oval Office; it continued past the Roosevelt Room and toward the chief of staff’s office, and then barreled around the corner to the national security adviser’s warren. Musk accused Bessent of having run two failed hedge funds. “I can’t hear you,” he told Bessent as they argued, their faces just inches apart. “Say it louder.”Dismissing this account, Musk wrote on X, “They are the past, the legacy media fading into obscurity.” Conservative media personality Meghan Kelly came out in Musk’s support, writing: “If his life is in ‘decline,’ sign me up for decline.”
Musk’s nearly four-month whirlwind tenure in the Trump administration has drawn to a close as he shifts his focus to his businesses, chiefly Tesla which has hit a rough patch.
Elon Musk’s fall from the Trump administration
After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, he sought to bring high-profile business leaders into the fold to bolster the image of a revitalized, results-driven government. Musk, the maverick entrepreneur who had supported Trump during his campaign, was tapped to lead DOGE — a symbolic nod to his internet-savvy image. For Trump, Musk’s presence lent a veneer of innovation and private-sector credibility. For Musk, it was an opportunity to reshape federal bureaucracy, promote advanced automation, and potentially create favorable regulatory conditions for his companies.The early months were filled with headlines, bold promises, and futuristic proposals — digitizing public services, reducing bureaucratic waste, and applying Tesla-style efficiency to everything. But behind the scenes, frictions began emerging.Musk’s ideological ambiguity soon became a liability. While his libertarian-technocratic leanings initially aligned with Trump’s deregulation-first agenda, their differences widened. Musk’s increasingly public clashes with social activists and vague statements on issues like free speech, trans rights, and corporate diversity alienated parts of the administration eager to maintain a carefully managed populist image.
Federal departments resisted Musk’s technocratic interventions. Career officials, unions, and even GOP lawmakers complained that his proposals lacked feasibility and sensitivity to institutional norms. Within months, Musk had become more of a liability than an asset. His influence began to wane, his access curtailed, and his DOGE proposals sidelined in favor of more traditional conservative priorities.
Trump used to post a lot about Elon Musk on Truth Social, about four times a week in Feb and March, according to a Politico report but now Trump and Musk both have stopped talking about each other publicly. Musk had become unpopular with the public, based on polls and how people reacted to him during the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The report cited a GOP insider saying, “He’s finished, done, gone. He polls terribly. People hate him.”
As Musk’s political stature dimmed, his business empire began to falter. Amid growing EV competition and controversial public behavior, Tesla’s market share and brand appeal declined. The company lost ground in Europe and China, while US sales stagnated under the shadow of Musk’s polarizing persona. Delays in federal approvals for Starlink expansions and space launches — some allegedly political — added to the pressures. The message was clear: Musk’s businesses needed his full attention. Shareholders in Tesla and SpaceX began pushing for his return, citing lack of direction, public backlash, and missed product targets. Analysts began asking if Musk had overextended himself, both politically and professionally.
While Musk’s exit has been framed as voluntary, it doesn’t appear to be so. Musk had effectively been sidelined much earlier, excluded from core policy decisions and relegated to symbolic roles. DOGE continued in name only, stripped of influence and ambition. Ahead of the 2026 midterms, Trump would want his government to retain popular support which was eroding due to Musk’s radical cuts in staff and spending.
Musk, who spent nearly $300 million to back Trump’s presidential campaign and other Republicans last year, said on Tuesday he will cut his political spending substantially. Musk has said he will reduce his work for Trump and focus on Tesla. “My rough plan on the White House is to be there for a couple days, every few weeks, and to be helpful where I can be helpful,” he said.
What awaits Musk at business?
Musk’s foray into government was bold, disruptive, and ultimately unsuccessful. Yet, in stepping away from politics, he may have rediscovered his core identity: not as a political figure but as an innovator. With Tesla facing headwinds, SpaceX eyeing new frontiers, and X needing a vision beyond controversy, Musk’s true test lies not in the halls of power, but in the factories, labs and launch pads that first made him a household name.
Whether this return is a reinvention or a last stand remains to be seen. Longtime Tesla Bull and wealth manager Ross Gerber sold more than 26,000 of his Tesla shares in the first quarter of 2025. This accounts for roughly 10% of his wealth management firm – Gerber-Kawasaki, says a Business Insider report. Gerber has initially predicted that Tesla’s stock could drop by as much as 50 percent — a forecast that proved accurate after Tesla shares drop by up to 43% following the backlash to Musk’s controversial Nazi-style salute during Trump’s inauguration. Although Tesla’s stock has recovered since then, Gerber told the publication that he doesn’t believe the rebound will be sustainable. “We certainly haven’t changed our view where we would start [buying Tesla stock] again,” he said. Gerber said that there is not a lot of hope for the EV company, unless it can massively turn things around with the Robotaxi service launch in Austin next month. “This could be an extremely difficult time for them,” he said, adding “if they don’t pull off or at least convince people that they have a real robotaxi business on the way.”
“I think the next six months will really be make or break for them,” Gerber said, “and we’ll see how they do.” Gerber’s remarks come days after Musk reaffirmed his commitment to Tesla, stating that he will continue to be the company’s CEO for the next five years.
Tesla is set to begin a test of its long-promised robotaxi service on schedule in Austin, Texas, by the end of June, Musk said on Tuesday, even as the company faces safety questions from a US regulator. Tesla will roll out about 10 self-driving cars in some parts of the city, and scale up to about a thousand within a few months, Musk told CNBC in an interview. A successful robotaxi trial is crucial for Tesla as Musk has shifted the company’s focus away from building a new, cheaper EV platform to launching the robotaxi service and its Optimus humanoid robots. Much of Tesla’s valuation hangs on that bet.
Meanwhile, Chinese automaker BYD sold more electric vehicles in Europe than Tesla for the first time, according to a report by JATO Dynamics, as an aging model lineup and Musk’s politics hurt demand for Tesla’s cars. Tesla reported its first drop in annual deliveries last year, and analysts expect another fall this year after a 13% decline in the first quarter. Musk said earlier this week that Tesla had already turned around sales, and demand was strong in regions apart from Europe.
Musk said that he expects hundreds of thousands of self-driving Teslas will be on the road requiring no human intervention by the end of next year and that he is committed to staying as CEO of the company for at least another five years. He also said in a pair of interviews on Tuesday that he has no regrets about leading the DOGE under the Trump administration. He downplayed any damage to the Tesla brand from that role, saying demand for Teslas has experienced a “major rebound.”
After a steep fall this year, Tesla stock is up more than 50% in little over a month as investors have cheered Musk’s decision to scale back his time in Washington and spend more time running the company.
“We’re strong everywhere else [except Europe]. So sales are… doing well at this point,” Musk told the 2025 Qatar Economic Forum a few days ago. “We’re now back over a trillion dollars in market cap, so clearly, the market is aware of the situation, so it’s already turned around.”
(With inputs from agencies)
