The Wall Street Journal is a "discredit to journalism," the world's richest man has said

Elon Musk has rejected as "deliberately false" a report by the Wall Street Journal, claiming that Tesla's board is looking to replace him as the CEO of the electric car company.

The WSJ claimed, citing anonymous sources, that about a month ago Tesla's board reached out to a number of executive search firms to work on a formal process for finding a new CEO. The directors "got serious" after Tesla's stock plunged and investors got "irritated" by Musk's focus on his job as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm issued a statement in which she called the report "absolutely false."

"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," Denholm stressed.

Musk reacted to the report on his X platform on Thursday, insisting that "it is an extremely bad breach of ethics that the Wall Street Journal would publish a deliberately false article" and slammed the outlet for its failure to include the Tesla board's "unequivocal denial" of claims that it is searching for a new CEO in its article.

In a separate comment, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO labeled the WSJ a "discredit to journalism."

Tesla suffered a 71% drop in profits and a 9% decline in revenue for the first quarter of 2025, during which time Musk became an increasingly polarizing figure, due to his close ties to US President Donald Trump and his work as the head of the DOGE, an agency tasked with slashing government spending.

Since January, dozens of Tesla-linked locations have been hit by protests, in what Musk claims is a coordinated effort bankrolled by major Democratic donors. There have also been violent attacks, including arson attempts, on the company's dealerships, vehicles and charging stations.

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A week ago, Musk announced that he will scale back his government role because the "major work" to establish DOGE has now been completed. During a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump thanked the tech billionaire for his contribution, saying "you know you are invited to stay as long as you want... I guess he wants to get back home to his cars."