Elon Musk defends Tesla, role as CEO in fiery Bloomberg interview

Elon Musk didn’t hold back in a fiery interview when questioned about Tesla’s future, his role as CEO and the backlash the auto giant has faced.

Elon Musk has laughed off Tesla’s plunging sales, furious shareholders, and questions over his commitment to the company, declaring he’ll stay chief executive officer of Tesla for the next five years unless he dies.

Speaking remotely with Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain at the Qatar Economic Forum, Musk defended Tesla’s downturn, despite a recent 66 per cent plunge in quarterly profits.

Asked by Husain what he was doing to “turn around” Tesla after weakening global sales, Musk responded “it’s already turned around” and then fell silent.

Questioned again by Husain, Musk acknowledged that Europe is the company’s worst market but explained the company is strong everywhere else.

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As Musk continued to explain that Tesla sales were fine, Husain pointed out that the EV giant’s brand had taken a hit, referencing reports of owners displaying bumper stickers that read “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.”

In response, Musk said: “And there also people who are buying it because Elon’s crazy or however they may view it, so yes we’ve lost some sales perhaps on the left but we’ve gained them on the right. The sales numbers at this point are strong and we see no problem with demand.”

Musk pointed to the company’s stock price to justify his point.

Husain addressed concerns over Musk’s massive US $65 billion pay package, which was struck down twice by a Delaware judge.

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Elon Musk speaks remotely at the Qatar Economic Forum, defending Tesla's sales performance and reaffirming his role as CEO despite growing backlash. Picture: YouTube

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In true Musk style, he lashed out saying “not a judge. The activist who is cosplaying a judge in a Halloween costume.”

When questioned about his pay and whether that played a part in his role.

Musk admitted that pay “was not independent” of his continued commitment but argued it was more about control over the company, especially as Tesla plans to roll out “millions, potentially billions of humanoid robots.”

Musk was also asked whether he regretted becoming politically involved.

After a long pause, he described the public backlash as a “violent antibody reaction.”

“I’m not someone who’s ever committed violence and yet massive violence was committed against my companies. Massive violence was threatened against me, who are these people? Why would they do that? How wrong can they be? They’re on the wrong side of history.”

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During a wide-ranging interview at the Qatar Economic Forum, Elon Musk insists Tesla has "already turned around" following a major drop in profits.

He said individuals who attacked Tesla showrooms would be prosecuted, stating “Those people will go to prison and the people that funded them and organised them will also go to prison,” pointing to the screen, he said “don’t worry we’re coming for you.”

Throughout the interview, Musk frequently expressed frustration with the line of questioning. At times, he offered only one-worded answers and paused for extended periods, and interrupted Husain with “let’s move on.”

He also referred to Husain as an “NPC”, a term from video gaming slang meaning non-playable character and said the conversation felt like he was “talking to a computer.”

In addition to Tesla, Musk was questioned about his role in the Trump’s administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he claimed to be an adviser rather than a decision-maker.

He was also questioned about federal program cuts, comments on AI regulation, remarks about South Africa law, criticism from Bill Gates over USAID funding, and reports of past communication with Russian President Vladimir Putin.