Billionaire Tesla (TSLA.O) left the Trump administration after new tab CEO Elon Musk led turbulent efficiency, in the intersecting efficiencies, overturning several federal agencies during that time, but ultimately failed to provide the generational savings he was hoping for.
White House officials said he “will start off tonight,” Reuters said late Wednesday, confirming Musk’s departure from the government. Musk before Wednesday took him to his social media platform X to thank President Donald Trump for finishing his time as a special government official in the government’s Department of Efficiency.
His departure was quick and uncomfortable. He had not had a formal conversation with Trump before announcing his exit, according to sources with knowledge of the matter, adding that his departure was decided “at the senior staff level.”
The exact situation at his exit was not immediately clear, but the day after he criticized Trump’s marquee tax bill, he calls it too expensive and a measure that undermines his work with the US Doge service.
Some senior White House officials, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who were particularly plagued by those comments, were forced to call Republican senators and repeat their support for Trump’s package, a source familiar with the matter said.
Musk stays close to the president, but his exit comes after a gradual but steady slide.
After Trump took office, the billionaire quickly emerged as a powerful force in Trump’s orbit. At a conservative political action meeting in February, he wielded a red metallic chainsaw around wild cheers.
“This is a chainsaw of bureaucracy,” he declared.
On the campaign trail, Musk said Doge could cut at least $2 trillion in federal spending. Doge now estimates that its efforts have saved $175 billion so far, and Reuters numbers could not be independently verified.
Musk predicted that revoking the “Covid-era privilege” of telework would cause “a wave of voluntary ending that we welcomed.”
MNA/