Elon Musk and Tesla’s board chairwoman disputed a new report that suggested the electric vehicle maker is looking for a new CEO, as the company deals with backlash from its co-founder’s involvement in the Trump administration.

Tesla’s board is said to have contacted several executive search firms and narrowed its focus to one such firm in order to find Musk’s successor, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening. Hours later, Chairwoman Robyn Denholm issued a statement setting the record straight.

“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),” Denholm said early Thursday morning.

“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,” she added.

Musk also denied the Journal‘s report, criticizing the newspaper for not including an official statement from Tesla’s board of directors.

“It is an EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS that the [Journal] would publish a DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE and fail to include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors!” the tech billionaire posted on X. In a separate post, he harshly called the news outlet a “discredit to journalism.”

In recent months, Tesla’s shares have been plummeting, at least in part due to the blowback against Musk’s work for the Trump administration. Musk’s cost-cutting efforts as the de facto head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency have inspired left-wing protests and countless acts of vandalism against Tesla vehicles and dealerships. Musk also serves as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump.

Realizing the toll Tesla has taken financially, Musk announced last week that he would soon step back from his work at DOGE to refocus most of his time on the electric vehicle automaker. The change will likely come in May, although the world’s richest man said he will continue to work with DOGE, potentially for the remainder of Trump’s term if needed.

Tesla’s board members reportedly told Musk he needed to shift his attention to the company and to indicate as such publicly, according to the Journal.

Musk’s statement was preceded by Tesla’s acknowledgment that “political sentiment” may be hurting the company’s financial performance. Tesla also took issue with Trump’s global tariffs, saying its energy storage business would be acutely impacted. Musk advised Trump against unpredictable tariffs but said he respects the president’s economic decisions.

Tesla’s stock price has fallen by more than 25 percent since the start of the year. The company is also experiencing declining sales, reporting a 13 percent drop in vehicle deliveries for the first quarter.

As the automaker faces mounting challenges, the Trump administration has stood by Musk. For instance, the Department of Justice has begun prosecuting violent Tesla vandals as domestic terrorists. Also, Trump himself bought one of Tesla’s electric vehicles in March as a show of support for its chief executive.