Elon Musk has always worn a lot of hats. Earlier this year, while he was working at the White House, he literally wore several hats on his head at the same time, in a clownish attempt to make this very point to other Trump officials. Even though the billionaire has since parted ways with the administration and is in the midst of an acrimonious spat with the President, he is still keeping busy. Now, he’s reportedly given himself a new job just as he pledged to launch a new political party, thus keeping the whole hats-on-hats thing going.
Last week, multiple outlets reported that Musk had fired Omead Afshar, the head of Tesla’s sales and manufacturing operations in North America and Europe. The alleged expulsion (Tesla never confirmed what had happened, and didn’t respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment) came amidst a dramatic downturn in the EV company’s business. Tesla sales in Europe and the U.S. have been dropping like a stone over the past few months, as backlash against Musk’s political activities and increased competition from other EV brands do serious damage to Tesla’s brand and bottom line.
Now, Musk appears to have given himself Afshar’s job. Bloomberg reports that Musk has “assumed oversight of sales in Europe and the US.” The outlet notes that Musk and Tom Zhu, Tesla’s deputy and senior vice president for Asia, are now “divvying up” Afshar’s former responsibilities amongst themselves. At the same time, Zhu has reportedly been promoted to oversee Tesla’s manufacturing operations globally, the outlet reports. Just how many of Afshar’s responsibilities Zhu will take and how many Musk will bear is anybody’s guess.
Again, Musk giving himself this new position seems like a particularly bizarre choice, given the widely held perception that it is Musk, himself, that has inspired a downturn in Tesla sales—particularly in Europe. Musk spent the first part of this year mucking around in European politics—using his platform, X, to take shots at European leaders (like Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer) and to spread alarm and misinformation. At the same time, Musk’s role in the Trump administration (with DOGE) has also inspired backlash. Recent statistics show that Tesla sales have been dropping by double digits across the EU.
At the same time that Musk has given himself a new job, he is also toying with continuing his foray into politics—another hilarious decision, given how poorly his recent efforts have fared. In recent days, Musk has claimed that he would like to launch a new political party in the U.S., should Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill be signed into law. Musk and Trump—who were considered best “buddies” and political colleagues only a few months ago—have been feuding over the contents of the bill, which includes a nixing of the EV tax credit that formerly helped fuel Tesla’s rise. In retaliation for Elon’s criticism of the bill, Trump has threatened to cut off federal support for Musk’s companies, including Tesla and SpaceX.
If Musk doesn’t get his way, his new plan is to launch an “America Party,” as well as to use his financial largesse to primary “nearly every single Republican in Congress,” the New York Times has reported. “If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” Musk posted to X on Monday. “Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.” It’s so far unclear what Musk’s “America Party” might look like, although Newsweek has gone as far as to heavily speculate about it. They predict that the billionaire might attempt to craft a new political consensus that coheres around his own interests.
Of course, all of this may be bullshit, since another thing that Musk is very good at (aside from giving himself a lot of really impressive job titles) is vowing to do stuff that he never actually does. His corporate career is littered with dumb promises that have never come to pass. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to assume that his political career will be any different.
Elon Musk Adds ‘Sell Cars in Europe’ to His To-Do List
