Musk ends official role but says DOGE will keep growing

Elon Musk has officially stepped down from his position as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a role he held as a special government employee under President Donald Trump’s administration.

While his tenure was always intended to be temporary, Musk’s departure comes amid growing criticism of the administration’s fiscal policies, particularly the recently proposed “big beautiful bill” that he argues undermines DOGE’s objectives.

In a post on X, he said that his planned time as a Special Government Employee has ended. Musk thanked the President for allowing him to cut wasteful spending.

He emphasized that the DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.

Musk ends official role but says DOGE will keep growing

Elon Musk officially ended his short-term role in the Trump administration after reaching the legal limit of 130 working days a year for a Special Government Employee. President Trump asked Musk to lead the new department focused on cutting waste across the government, the Department of Government Efficiency, after taking office in January 2025.

Musk and his team planned to stay until summer, but the 130-day rule forced him to resign by the end of May, and government staff were already working on the offboarding process before the deadline. 

Officials searched for workarounds to extend his stay but followed the legal limit of his employee status, and the White House officially confirmed Musk’s exit on Wednesday. 

Musk’s role and title as a Special Government Employee allowed him to advise, lead reforms, and set targets without becoming a full-time official while avoiding conflict-of-interest rules that apply to full-time civil servants. 

Musk used strong language to promote a leaner, more efficient system and promised to cut up to $2 trillion in unnecessary federal spending when he first joined DOGE. This framed his mission as a fight against “bureaucratic bloat.”

He only reported saving $175 billion, which quickly drew scrutiny. Sources could not verify the savings, suggesting that some of the cuts likely came from programs already scheduled to shrink. Critics argued that the other estimated cuts, or “future savings,” might never materialize.

Musk believes the values and systems he introduced in DOGE would remain and spread across agencies as a permanent part of how the government manages its money, even though he is stepping away from the role.

Musk hasn’t named his successor, and DOGE is yet to announce a takeover candidate. However, sources inside the administration claim they are exploring internal and external candidates to continue the mission.

Republicans close to the White House hope his early efforts can serve as a blueprint for future reforms because they said Musk’s influence changed how some departments think about efficiency. 

Musk slams Trump’s budget and shifts focus back to Tesla

Elon Musk said Trump’s new tax-and-spending bill would increase the national deficit and go against the very mission of the Department of Government Efficiency. He expressed frustration that the legislation favored large-scale spending and would undo much of what DOGE aimed to fix, saying, “A bill can be big, or it can be beautiful — but not both.”

Independent budget analysts warned that Trump’s bill could increase the US deficit by more than $3.3 trillion over the next decade. Musk pointed to these figures and said the administration’s new approach could reverse progress by pumping huge amounts of money into tax breaks and defense spending without proper controls or offsets.

Musk now says he would spend “a lot less” on politics and believes he has “done enough” in politics after donating over $250 million to help fund Trump’s presidential campaign and related efforts in 2024.

Musk wants to return his full attention to Tesla and SpaceX, focusing on Tesla, whose sales dropped recently due to the ‘political noise’ surrounding his government role. He blamed his ties to the Trump administration for the sales drop, saying they made some buyers hesitant or turned them away.

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