Elon Musk announced on social media that he is leaving his position in the US government. Tesla CEO Musk stated that his term as a special government employee has ended and said, “I would like to thank former President Donald Trump for giving me the opportunity to reduce unnecessary spending.”
Musk called the “government efficiency department” he assumed in the Trump administration the DOGE mission and said that this would become a way of life throughout the government and become stronger.
Musk left the DOGE department he came to in the Trump administration!
Musk’s departure from his position was also confirmed by the White House. A White House official stated that Musk’s departure was real and that the separation process had begun. This process took place without any official meetings and according to sources, the decision was made at the senior staff level.
Tesla’s billionaire CEO Musk had extensive authority to downsize and restructure some parts of the federal government during his approximately 130-day special term in the Trump administration. Musk, whose term ends around May 30, has frequently expressed his dissatisfaction with the work of the “department of government efficiency,” known as DOGE.
Musk recently criticized Trump’s budget spending plan, arguing that it was overly costly and undermined efforts to make the government more efficient. In an interview with the Washington Post, Musk said that the state of the federal bureaucracy was much worse than he expected, and emphasized the difficulty of fixing conditions in Washington. He also said that DOGE was frequently targeted as the cause of problems in the White House.
It has been reported that Musk had private disagreements with some cabinet officials during his time in government, and that he called White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro “idiot” for belittling his proposal to implement zero tariffs between the US and Europe.
One of Musk’s recent disappointments was the deal that OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, a rival of his AI company, made with Abu Dhabi. According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk had requested that his company be included in this deal, but this did not happen.
On the other hand, Musk’s political disappointment also includes losing the Wisconsin judicial candidate he supported. Musk had spent approximately $25 million on the candidate’s campaign.
With the DOGE initiatives, the Trump administration reduced approximately 12 percent of the federal civilian workforce, or 260,000 people out of 2.3 million employees, through various incentives and retirement plans.
Musk’s political activities have been criticized by investors and the public, and some investors wanted Musk to focus more on Tesla. Musk had previously donated approximately $300 million to Trump’s presidential campaign and the Republicans. Musk, who announced at an economic forum held in Qatar that he would now significantly reduce his political spending, stated that he thought he had made enough contributions in this regard.
