My undergraduate education mainly focused on journalism, but I did take a public relations class. What I remember most about it were case studies that analyzed how corporations responded to crises. The faculty member emphasized that it was all too easy for top management to make a crisis bigger by not giving adequate consideration to the p.r. consequences of their actions.
I found myself thinking about that class as I was reading a news story in Automotive News about how Tesla reportedly fired an employee after he launched a website calling for Elon Musk to be replaced as CEO.
The story by Nick Bunkley (2025) included a link to the ex-employee’s website, called Tesla Employees Against Elon (2025). If you take a look at it you can see how the website is so basic — just one page with minimal graphics — that it could plausibly get little attention without a big boost from the mass media.
A big boost would appear to be exactly what the website has received in the wake of news reports about the ex-employee, Matthew LaBrot.
For example, yesterday morning readers of Automotive News’ website were greeted with a highly-placed article that drew from a Business Insider story. The reporter could just as easily have drawn from articles in Fortune, Business Today, Politico, Gizmodo, MotorBuscuit, Clean Technica, Electrek or . . . well, you get the idea.
To make matters worse, I would not be surprised if in a few days a Google search lists considerably more stories. That raises the obvious question: Did Tesla give itself a much bigger problem by firing the employee?
I don’t mean that as a rhetorical question — I honestly don’t pretend to know the answer. Personnel situations can be tricky because of confidentiality rules, so perhaps there are other factors that might lead to the conclusion that Tesla made the right move.
Website illustrates Tesla’s fundamental challenge
I would imagine that Tesla will be studied by p.r. scholars for years because the company’s current situation poses some particularly difficult challenges. They center around the pronounced gap between Musk’s recent political involvements with President Trump and Tesla’s longtime base of supporters, who have tilted liberal Democrat.
LaBrot’s (2025) website illustrates this gap by stating that “Elon’s recent claim that he is ‘refocusing’ on Tesla is not only tone-deaf, it’s insulting. It implies that the hardships of the past six months stem from a lack of his attention, not from his actions. It shifts the blame onto the very people who have held this company together. Let’s be clear: we are not the problem. Our products are not the problem. Our engineering, service, and delivery teams are not the problem. The problem is demand. The problem is Elon.”
LaBrot (2025) went on to argue that consumers aren’t “walking away from Tesla because they are losing interest in EVs. U.S. EV sales grew 10% in Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024, while Tesla sales declined 9% (Cox Automotive ). This is not because our cars got worse. Not because of affordability issues. But because people no longer want to associate with Elon.”
One interesting wrinkle to this discussion is that Tesla reportedly disbanded its p.r. department in 2020. However, last December Electrek reported that the automaker was hiring a new Vehicle Communications Manager. This raised the question of whether Tesla might rebuild its p.r. department (Lambert, 2024).
I took a quick look at Tesla’s website and didn’t find a link to a p.r. department, nor did I see any other openings that looked p.r.-like in nature.
Even if Tesla does rebuild its p.r. department, the gap between Musk’s recent politics and Tesla’s traditional support base isn’t likely to be papered over with some clever public relations. However, a good p.r. person could provide a useful reality check at critical junctures . . . if management is willing to listen.
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Bunkley, Nick; 2025. “Tesla fires employee who says Elon Musk’s leadership has hurt sales.” Automotive News. Posted May 15.
- Lambert, Fred; 2024. “Tesla looks for new comms manager, is a PR dept coming back?” Electrek. Posted Dec. 18.
- Tesla Employees Against Elon; 2025. Accessed May 15.
Perhaps Elon should walk away from owning/controlling Tesla to remove the disdain for him from that company. And remake that truck’s appearance and functionality into something a truck owner would actually buy (and could use) as a truck.