Elon Musk has announced via social media that he is stepping down from his role in the Trump administration—a move the White House confirmed was underway on Wednesday evening.
“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 posted on X, his social media platform.
He added: “The DOGE mission will only grow stronger over time, becoming a way of life throughout the government.”
A White House official told Reuters that it was accurate Musk is leaving the administration, and that his “off-boarding will begin tonight.”
Musk, currently the world’s richest person, has defended his position as an unelected official granted sweeping powers by Trump to restructure parts of the US government. His 130-day mandate as a Special Government Employee was set to expire around May 30.
Both Musk and the administration have maintained that the efforts of DOGE—the Department of Government Efficiency—to downsize and reform the federal government will continue.
Musk has spent the week signalling his exit from Washington and a renewed focus on his business ventures. He has been openly critical of Trump’s latest spending plan and has voiced frustration over the resistance faced by his signature initiative, DOGE.
“The federal bureaucracy is in far worse shape than I imagined,” Musk told The Washington Post on Tuesday. “I knew there were issues, but trying to make improvements in DC has been an uphill battle, to say the least.”
He also told the Post that DOGE had become a “whipping boy” in the Trump White House—blamed for nearly everything that went wrong.
The Republican megadonor's departure caps a tumultuous foray into politics that transformed him into one of Trump's closest advisers and saw plunging profits at his electric car company.
Tesla recently warned investors that the financial pain could continue, declining to offer a growth forecast while saying "changing political sentiment" could meaningfully hurt demand for the vehicles.
Musk told investors on an earnings call last month that the time he allocates to DOGE "will drop significantly" and that he would be "allocating far more of my time to Tesla".
Trump and DOGE have succeeded in cutting nearly 12 percent—roughly 2,60,000—of the federal civilian workforce of 2.3 million, primarily through threats of dismissal, buyouts, and early retirement offers.
On Tuesday, Musk also criticised the Republicans’ tax and budget legislation currently moving through Congress. “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly. It increases the budget deficit rather than reducing it, and undermines the work the DOGE team has been doing,” he told CBS News.
Musk’s political involvement has drawn protests, and some investors have called for him to step back from his advisory role and focus more closely on managing Tesla.
