'The damage is done': Traders say Elon Musk's return to Tesla is too little, too late

• Elon Musk said he's stepping away from the White House, but traders online seemed unexcited.
• After a rough earnings report, many retail investors said Musk has a long road ahead to repair the brand.
• Concerns about Musk's politics are still in the picture, despite his planned departure from DOGE.

Elon Musk is finally giving Tesla investors what they asked for — but many traders online say the lasting damage to the car company may be done.

Tesla stock rallied on Wednesday after Musk said he planned to spend less time in the Department of Government Efficiency starting in May.

His step back from politics addresses long-running concerns investors have had about Musk's divided attention. Investors have been dismayed by what they see as a long list of distractions for the Tesla CEO since he acquired X in 2022.

But while markets reacted positively to Musk's return to the EV maker, many investors commenting online say they don't see it making a big difference, considering the company's underwhelming first-quarter earnings and the reputational damage done by the CEO's politicking.

"Too late dude. The damage is done. If you think Q1 is bad, just wait for Q2," one user wrote on r/WallStreetBets, the popular retail investing subreddit that blew up during the pandemic.

"He's toast and so is Tesla. At some point the lack of sound fundamentals will cause regression to its P/E value," another user said, adding that they believed Tesla's price-to-earnings ratio would decline, due to the company having nothing "unique in the pipeline."

Even investors who acknowledged Musk's departure from DOGE as a positive said they believe Musk has a lot of work ahead.

"He needs to focus on fixing Tesla's fundamentals," Bilaal Dhalech, one retail trader who has a stake in Tesla, told Business Insider.

Some investors also believed that Musk's politics had already inflicted significant brand damage. In recent months, the company's vehicles have been flooding the used car market, while sales have been plummeting across Europe, China, and the US.

"People are not going to forget," one user wrote of Musk's political presence. "Even if he says he regrets getting mixed up in this stuff," they said, adding that the public understanding of Elon Musk and Tesla has already been changed.

"right, why do people think Elon and his insanity being at full on display at Tesla is going to HELP the company sell more cars to liberals?" another r/WallStreetBets user said.

Tesla missed on its latest financial results, with the EV maker pulling $19.3 billion in revenue over the first quarter, below the expected $21.4 million. Auto revenue was down 20% on an annual basis.

The stock is also still down significantly from its record-high, with shares trading 35% lower from the start of the year on Wednesday.

Analysts on Wall Street generally have a positive long-term outlook on Tesla, though some forecasters trimmed their price target for the stock after the dismal earnings report. Goldman Sachs, RBC Capital Markets, and Cantor were among those who cut their expectations for the carmaker, citing issues like the potential impact of tariffs and Tesla rescinding its guidance for 2025.