 "Elon Musk, left, shakes hands with President Donald Trump at the finals for the NCAA wrestling championship, Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. AP")
Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk announced on Wednesday that he is stepping down from his role as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Musk had been leading the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in efforts to cut red tape and reform the federal bureaucracy.
Musk shared the update on X, the social media platform he owns, thanking President Trump as his time as a special government employee with the Doge comes to an end.
“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,” he wrote. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
His departure comes just a day after Elon Musk publicly criticised President Trump for the first time, saying the President’s much-touted “big, beautiful” spending bill worsens the budget deficit and undercuts the efforts of the DOGE team.
“A bill can be big, or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion,” Musk said.
Elon Musk’s 130-day term as a special government employee in the Trump administration was set to end around May 30. The administration has said that efforts by his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) to shrink and restructure the federal government will continue.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Wednesday, Donald Trump defended his agenda and acknowledged the challenges of negotiating the legislation.
“I’m not happy with some parts of it, but I’m very pleased with others,” he said, adding that more changes could still be made.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “It still has a long way to go.”