Elon Musk said Wednesday that he is leaving his role as a special government employee for the Trump administration, a move that was expected.
Mr. Musk was the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, a department created at the start of President Trump’s second term, and given the job of slashing government spending.
“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,” Mr. Musk wrote in an X post.
“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” he said.
Mr. Musk said last month he would be taking a step back as the head of DOGE come May, but said he would still dedicate some time “on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it is useful.”
He said while speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum earlier this month that he was going to do “a lot less” spending on American politics in the future.
“I do not currently see a reason,” he said.
Mr. Musk took the job after spending millions on the 2024 election to help Mr. Trump and other Republicans get elected. Certain moves became controversial at times, but the DOGE website touts an estimated $175 billion in savings.
His retirement post comes after he criticized Mr. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” saying it “undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”
“I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit … and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” he said in an interview with CBS. “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. I don’t know if it can be both.”
It was a rare comment from Mr. Musk separating himself from the Trump administration and the comments cast doubt on the massive bill that made it past the House last week after much shepherding by Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, and Mr. Trump.
Mr. Johnson aimed to defend the bill against Mr. Musk’s comments Wednesday on social media, saying the work DOGE has done is “incredible” and the “House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand.”
Mr. Musk, the richest man in the world, told The Washington Post that DOGE “is just becoming the whipping boy for everything.”
“Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it,” he said.
He said the problems with the federal bureaucracy are “much worse than I realized.”
“I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least,” he said.
Mr. Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration has brought other headaches for the Tesla CEO, including drops in the company’s sales and revenue. His cars and dealerships have also been vandalized.
