Tesla stock notches weekly gain as Musk bashes New York Times report on way out of Trump White House

Tesla stock (TSLA) closed down but notched a weekly gain on Friday, capping another wild week of headlines for the carmaker and CEO Elon Musk, who is set to leave his government role on Friday and turn his full focus back to Tesla.

This comes after the New York Times reported Friday morning that Musk allegedly abused both illicit and pharmaceutical drugs “far more intensely than previously known” while on the campaign trail for Trump.

Musk reportedly had a medication box that held about 20 pills, and was taking so much ketamine — a drug with hallucinogenic and dissociative effects — that it was affecting his bladder. Musk also reportedly took ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, and Adderall on occasion, sources told the New York Times.

At a news conference with President Trump marking his last day as a special government employee, Musk refused to answer a question on the report.

“That New York Times? Let’s move on,” he said, after criticizing the New York Times’ Pulitzer award on its Trump and Russia reporting, one that Trump has called the “Russia hoax.”

Musk also appeared to have a black eye near his right temple, a peculiar injury given the timing of the drug abuse report.

“I was horsing around with little X [Musk’s son], and I said, ‘Go ahead and punch me in the face,’ and he did,” Musk explained.

Despite Friday’s shocking report, Tesla stock was still higher for the week and registered a 22.8% gain for the month of May, following the news Musk would return to the helm of his various companies.

Musk’s latest communique earlier this week via his X platform confirmed he was leaving Washington, where he nominally led the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and performing his own RTO (return to office): back to Tesla, SpaceX (SPAX.PVT), and X.

“Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms,” he said in part following an X outage, adding that he “must be super focused on 𝕏/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out.”

Musk’s SpaceX conducted a test of its Starship rocket and booster on Tuesday. Tesla reportedly will begin robotaxi testing in Austin, Texas, on June 12.

Musk confirmed that for “the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in driver’s seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents,” also confirming a similar Bloomberg report.

Musk added that Tesla is planning its first “self-delivery” from the factory to a customer next month. Musk and Tesla have bet the future of the company on self-driving and the ability for its cars to perform robotaxi services. Tesla’s dedicated robotaxi, the Cybercab, is slated for a 2026 launch as well.