Elon Musk lit up the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday after the outlet published what he called a “deliberately false” article alleging Tesla’s board of directors had secretly begun the search to replace him as CEO.
The article, dripping with anonymous sources and speculation, alleged that board members, irritated by Musk’s leadership in the Trump administration’s bold cost-cutting DOGE initiative, contacted executive search firms to start a formal succession process.
The WSJ claimed Tesla’s board was concerned about declining sales and profits, urging Musk to refocus on the automaker and even demanding he do so publicly.
Tesla’s board chair, Robyn Denholm, swiftly obliterated the story, calling it “absolutely false” and confirming that the company had warned the WSJ of its inaccuracy before publication.
Denholm said in a statement:
“Earlier today, there was a media report erroneously claiming that the Tesla Board had contacted recruitment firms to initiate a CEO search at the company.
This is absolutely false (and this was communicated to the media before the report was published).
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.”
Musk himself took to X, unloading on the outlet:
“It is an EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS that the @WSJ would publish a DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE and fail to include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors!”
It is an EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS that the @WSJ would publish a DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE and fail to include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors! https://t.co/9xdypLGg3c
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2025
In another post, he didn’t mince words: “WSJ is a discredit to journalism.”
WSJ is a discredit to journalism https://t.co/d8dOeCE9u2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2025
Musk’s past confrontations with the WSJ resurfaced following the hit piece, particularly a 2022 story that falsely claimed he had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Musk not only debunked the rumor—he torched the WSJ for pushing it.
“This is total BS. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night! I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic,” he wrote at the time.
“WSJ has run so many BS hit pieces on me and Tesla I’ve lost count! It’s embarrassing for them, frankly,” Musk added. “They once wrote an article saying FBI was about to arrest me, so I called FBI to ask what’s up and they said WSJ article was total BS.”
WSJ has run so many bs hit pieces on me and Tesla I’ve lost count! It’s embarrassing for them, frankly.
They once wrote an article saying FBI was about to arrest me, so I called FBI to ask what’s up and they said WSJ article was total bs.
Just more shortseller fud.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2022
