Newsman: Billionaire Elon Musk has officially left the Trump administration, capping the billionaire tech entrepreneur’s turbulent four-month run leading a contentious effort to slash the federal government.
Musk, who had already scaled back his role with the Department of Government Efficiency, announced his departure in a May 28 post on X. It comes as his designation as a “special government employee” ‒ which allowed him to stay on the job for 130 calendar days a year ‒ has ended.
“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk said. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
A White House official confirmed Musk’s exit, telling USA Today, “The off boarding process has begun.”
As the head of DOGE and a senior White House adviser, Musk led a controversial effort to rapidly gut the government of what he called “waste and fraud” and reduce the federal workforce. DOGE, which is manned by more than 100 government employees, is set to continue operating without Musk in charge. But it is unclear how much power the group will maintain without its famous leader.
The day before his departure, Musk broke with Trump by criticizing his massive tax and spending bill that the president has dubbed the “big, beautiful bill.” The bill, which includes Trump’s domestic agenda on items ranging from border security to tax cuts, passed the House along party lines last week. It now heads to the Senate.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said in a May 27 interview on CBS Sunday Morning.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would add $3.8 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion,” Musk said in the interview.
Musk, the richest man in the world and a Republican mega-donor who helped bankroll Trump’s 2024 campaign, last week said he intends to substantially cut back his political spending in future elections as he focuses more time on his businesses.
“I think in terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk said on May 20 at the Bloomberg News Qatar Economic Forum. “I think I’ve done enough.”
DOGE has boasted of saving the federal government more than $175 billion through cuts ‒ though the group’s declared savings have often been exaggerated or misleading. The office has dismantled entire federal agencies, axed government contracts and led the firings of tens of thousands of federal workers.
Musk downplayed the effect his absence could have on DOGE’s survival during an interview with USA TODAY and other media outlets earlier this month.
“Is Buddha needed for Buddhism?” Musk said when asked who on the DOGE team will fill the void. “DOGE is a way of life.”
Elon Musk ‘disappointed’ by the cost of Trump’s tax bill, says it undermines DOGE work
Billionaire Elon Musk said in an interview that he’s “disappointed” by the cost of Donald Trump’s much-ballyhooed sweeping tax bill passed by the House.
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion,” Musk said in the interview.
On May 22, the House passed a megabill by a vote of 215-214 that would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, boost defense and border security spending and implement new requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, among other things. Trump has dubbed it the “big, beautiful” bill.
But Musk said in an exclusive interview with CBS Sunday Morning that “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”
Musk opines on Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill.’ The bill heads to the Senate next, where lawmakers in the upper chamber are expected to make changes.
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both,” Elon Musk said of the House bill backed by Trump in a ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ interview.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would add $3.8 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.
Musk was asked by Trump to head the Department of Government Efficiency, has taken extensive efforts to cut government spending and slash the federal workforce. But he’s since taken a backseat from his role.
