Robyn Denholm, the chair of Tesla, Inc., pushed back on reports that the electric vehicle (EV) giant’s board members have launched a search for a new chief executive to succeed CEO Elon Musk — a key adviser to President Trump and his efforts to revamp the federal government.
Denholm’s defense came after the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night that Tesla contacted several executive search firms to begin a search for a new leader, citing people familiar with the discussions.
The Journal reported that the company’s board met with Musk recently and suggested that he should be more present at the company, adding that the tech billionaire did not object.
“Earlier today, there was a media report erroneously claiming that the Tesla Board had contacted recruitment firms to initiate a CEO search at the company,” Denholm wrote on social media platform X shortly after midnight Wednesday. “This is absolutely false (and 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 added.
Musk, who has played an instrumental role in the first 100 days of the Trump administration as the top adviser over the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — a commission tasked with cutting billions of dollars in government spending and overhauling the workforce — also pushed back on the Journal’s reporting.
“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,” Musk wrote on X, which he also owns.
The tech billionaire said last week that he would temper down his involvement in the administration and devote more time and energy to Tesla, one of the six companies he oversees. His tenure as a special government employee is set to expire on May 30.
Still, Musk told reporters on Wednesday that he is “willing to continue on average, one to two days a week, which probably means coming to D.C. every other week for three days, type of thing.”
Tesla’s eight-person board consists of Musk, along with his brother Kimbal Musk and the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch.
The transition also comes as Tesla reels from earnings drops and a slew of protests and attacks on dealerships across the U.S. and abroad in light of the Trump administration’s mass layoffs and moves some have argued primarily benefit the wealthy.
