Musk has led the newly created advisory body - the Department for Government Efficiency Doge since last year, putting the world's richest man at the heart of cutting US spending and jobs.

But Musk said his "time allocation to Doge" would "drop significantly" from next month, adding he would spend only one to two days per week on it after accusations he has taken his focus off Tesla. Temporary government employees, such as Musk, are normally limited to working 130 days a year which, if counted from the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration, is set to expire late next month. But it is unclear when Musk, who contributed more than a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump's re-election, will step down completely.

The tech boss said he would now "be allocating far more of my time to Tesla", but suggested he would not leave the Trump administration completely, calling the work "critical" and pledging to stay on "as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it's useful On Tuesday, Tesla reported a 20% drop in car sales for the first three months of the year, compared with the same period last year, while profits fell more than 70%.The company warned investors that the pain could continue, declining to offer a growth forecast while saying "changing political sentiment" could meaningfully hurt demand. Musk blamed the boycott of Tesla cars on people who would "try to attack me and the Doge team". (BBC)