Several investors worry that Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is spending too much time on a Trump administration project called DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, which was created to take hundreds of billions of dollars out of the federal budget. This means he has spent little time on his two most prominent companies, SpaceX and Tesla.

Tesla, a public company, has lost over 40% of its market value since mid-January. Potential consumers have turned away from buying its vehicles. Some owners have turned theirs in, often at significant discounts.

One of Tesla’s most visible Wall Street analysts recently said the company is about to hit “Code Red.” This will coincide with its first-quarter earnings release on Tuesday. Wedbush’s Dan Ives wrote that Tesla is Musk, and Musk is Tesla. Musk’s damage to the company is a real thing. Ives mentioned that the damage had been done in a challenge in other nations. He also said that the damage might permanently undermine its sales by 15% to 20%.

Ives’s opinion has a lot of support. Tesla shipments worldwide declined by slightly more than 1% last year to 1.8 million. In the first quarter of this year, that drop’s pace has quickened. And Tesla has delayed the launch of its new, inexpensive car until next year. Inexpensive electric vehicles (EVs) are crucial to EV adoption.

What is unclear is whether Musk’s return to the company will turn it around in any meaningful way. However, Ives still views Tesla as having a critical disruptive technology. What Ives does not make clear is that other companies, like Google’s Waymo, are working on a parallel track.

Ives’s concession is that, if Musk does not leave the White House soon, the damage to Tesla will be extensive and not reversible.

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