Tesla’s board chair, Robyn Denholm, pushed back on worries that Elon Musk’s political activity has hurt the carmaker and said he is free to take part in elections as he wishes.
Speaking on Friday, Denholm said that Tesla’s attention remains on its products and customers, not the chief executive’s personal views.
“What he does from a personal perspective in terms of his political motivations is up to him,” Denholm said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday. “From a politics perspective, obviously we’re in a democracy, so everybody gets to voice their points of view.”
Musk’s role in politics has raised two sets of concerns for Tesla. Some investors say it distracts him from growing the business. Some buyers also dislike his contrarian conservative stance and his strained alliance with President Donald Trump, which they say has hurt the brand.
Tesla recorded a 13% drop in global vehicle deliveries in the second quarter. A customer base that once leaned affluent, urban, and climate-focused has cooled on the company.
In a few instances, the backlash has turned criminal, with sporadic arson and vandalism at stores and charging sites. The company has also faced limits from an aging lineup and stiffer competition in electric cars.
Tesla’s product, not Elon Musk’s personality, drives demand
“My view is over the long term people buy things that they really love. And Tesla vehicles are things that people really love,” she said, adding that Musk is “front and center” at the company after several months at the White House.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, the moment you get into a Tesla and you drive that car, you know what that experience is like.”
Over the past two years, Musk has become a major political figure, using his wealth and his social media platform to back efforts to elect Trump in 2024.
Musk was the largest single contributor to political committees in that campaign. He also used his sway to convince Trump to set up a Department of Government Efficiency and to put him in charge. That relationship later unraveled in a very public split between the two billionaires.
Denholm helped lead talks on Musk’s $1 trillion pay deal
Musk has also briefly slipped behind Oracle founder Larry Ellison on the wealth rankings earlier, as noted by Cryptopolitan this week.
At the same time, the board was discussing Musk’s compensation. Directors last week disclosed an unprecedented $1 trillion offer as part of efforts to reset his pay. Denholm is one of two Tesla directors working directly on the package.
In a proxy filing last week, the board noted Musk’s “high public profile” and the risk that politics could pull him away from running the company. Directors said they sought “assurances that Musk’s involvement with the political sphere would wind down in a timely manner.”
On Friday, Denholm declined to spell out what “political involvement” means for the board and emphasized that Musk, like any citizen, can share his views.
Musk has threatened to start the “America Party” after Trump signed a bill in July to raise the federal debt limit, a step that would be costly and face long odds in a two-party system.
Not everything has gone his way. His April backing of a conservative contender for the Wisconsin Supreme Court backfired as the contest turned into a judgment on Musk himself. Despite roughly $20 million in attack ads linked to Musk and allied groups, the court’s liberal wing now commands the majority.
Musk showed signs of fatigue with politics in May, telling Bloomberg at the Qatar Economic Forum that he would “do a lot less” in the future, a possible setback for Republicans heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
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