'Huge damage': Irked investor doubts 'despised' Elon Musk can fix free-falling Tesla

A Tesla investor and wealth manager expressed skepticism over claims that Elon Musk's promise to spend less time in Washington will bolster his Tesla electric vehicle brand and encourage sales.

After Musk got involved with President Donald Trump and took charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, Tesla vehicles and Cybertrucks became targeted symbols for his slash-and-burn tactics. Tesla dealerships have faced vandalism and even been set ablaze, as Tesla's stock plunged. The company reported a whopping 71% nosedive in net income yesterday due to falling sales.

According to The New York Times, just hours after Tesla said first-quarter earnings were at $409 million, down from $1.4 billion last year, Musk said on an investor call that he planned to spend less time in Washington.

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Ross Gerber, with Gerber Kawasaki Wealth Management, told CNN on Wednesday that he found the notion that Musk is "coming back to Tesla" to be "somewhat overblown," because Musk's true focus is on artificial intelligence.

"People forget that he's raising money for xAI...a huge amount of money," Gerber said. "So, I don't necessarily think refocusing on Tesla is his main goal. It's one of the things he will do along with building AI, so, I still think the same problems persist, irrelevant of where he spends his time."

Gerber said Musk has created a "huge amount of brand damage," and the reason people have soured on him isn't due to his DOGE cuts alone.

"I think there's a misperception that Elon has, that he thinks that his actions within the government have created this brand damage, and that's not correct," Gerber said. "It's actually a combination of things led by his actual views about many people and topics that are abhorrent to many people, including the support of the AfD in Germany and other right-wing, white supremacist groups. So, I don't think that DOGE is the issue, actually. It's that people despise Elon Musk even more than they hate Trump, and that's not something that he can solve at this point."

Watch the clip below via CNN.