Elon Musk has quit the Department of Government Efficiency and officially parted ways with the White House, less than 24 hours after publicly severing ties with President Donald Trump. The former "First Buddy" offered kind words about the president in what appeared to be an attempt to leave on a positive note.
Musk thanked Trump despite having criticized the President's "big beautiful bill" and expressing disappointment over how his DOGE team had been treated. "As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending," the Tesla CEO wrote on X on Wednesday night.
End of His Role
"The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government," Musk added. Musk was originally set to wrap up his role at the White House by May 30. His position as a Special Government Employee was always meant to be temporary, with a term of 130 days.
In recent weeks, the world's wealthiest man had been gradually stepping back from politics, amid growing rumors of friction with senior administration figures.
However, tensions reached a peak on Tuesday night when Musk, speaking from his South Texas Starbase ahead of a new SpaceX launch, openly slammed the administration.
Speaking to CBS about the $3.8 trillion spending package, Musk stated bluntly, "It undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing." "I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it."
Musk — who gave interviews to several media outlets about what he described as a betrayal by the White House — went on to condemn the way he and his young DOGE team members had been treated. "Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it."
Ending on a Sour Note
After playing a key role in Trump's 2024 election win through massive financial donations and high-profile endorsements, Musk was dubbed the White House's "First Buddy." Musk was highly visible during the early months of Trump's second term — personally advising the president, gutting federal departments, and even bringing his son, X, to high-level meetings in the Oval Office.
However, his presence stirred controversy both inside the political sphere and among federal workers, especially as he aggressively cut jobs in a push to eliminate government waste.
"People burning Teslas," he told the Post. "Why would you do that?"
As Tesla showrooms across the country became flashpoints for violent protests, the company's stock plummeted, and reports surfaced suggesting the board was seriously weighing the option of replacing Musk.
"I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics," Musk admitted in a separate interview with ARS Technica.
"It's not like I left the companies. It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I've reduced that significantly in recent weeks."
Musk added insult to injury by openly criticizing Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill." "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both," he said. "My personal opinion."
The bill is expected to add another $3.8 trillion to the national debt, pushing the already staggering total beyond $36 trillion. "The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized," he said.
"I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least."
Musk claimed to have saved roughly $160 billion in what he called wasteful government spending by drastically cutting or completely shutting down 11 federal departments—an action that resulted in the loss of around 250,000 federal jobs.
However, that figure falls far short of the $2 trillion in savings he had promised when the DOGE initiative was first launched. The effort has also come at a steep price, with a growing number of lawsuits and widespread protests targeting both Musk and his companies.
He stepped back from his high-profile government role recently to refocus on his long-term dream of colonizing Mars, amid speculation that his relationship with Trump had soured and that he had made powerful enemies inside the White House.
