Tech billionaire Elon Musk has confirmed his departure from his role in the U.S. federal government, ending his tenure as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a position he held with the aim of slashing bureaucratic spending.
The announcement came just days after Musk voiced strong opposition to President Donald Trump’s sweeping spending proposal, known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”
“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote on his platform X.
“The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
The DOGE initiative, created to streamline federal operations and cut costs, resulted in tens of thousands of job cuts and the dissolution of several government departments during Musk’s brief but high-profile tenure.
A Rare Break With Trump
Musk’s exit followed his first major policy disagreement with President Trump over the administration’s flagship spending and tax bill. In an interview with CBS News aired Tuesday, Musk criticized the legislation for increasing the national deficit and undermining DOGE’s goals.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” he said.
Critics of the bill warn that it could increase the federal deficit by up to $4 trillion over the next decade and severely impact social programs, including healthcare. In a pointed comment, Musk remarked,
“A bill can be big, or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both.”
While the White House has not responded to Musk directly, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller stated on X that the bill “is NOT an annual budget bill” and clarified that DOGE-related cuts would need to be implemented through separate legislation.
DOGE as ‘Whipping Boy’
In a separate interview with The Washington Post, Musk lamented that DOGE had become a scapegoat for broader dissatisfaction with the Trump administration.
“DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,” he said from the Starbase launch site in Texas.
“Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.”
Musk attributed the initiative’s limited success to entrenched government resistance, stating,
“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC, to say the least.”
Sources familiar with DOGE’s operations cited Musk’s outsider status and confrontational leadership style as contributing factors to the department’s difficulties.
Impact on Musk’s Businesses
Musk acknowledged that his public role in federal cutbacks had taken a toll on his companies, particularly Tesla. Protesters targeted dealerships, and in several instances, Tesla vehicles were set on fire. The company’s profits also declined amid the backlash.
“People were burning Teslas. Why would you do that? That’s really uncool,” Musk told the Post.
Meanwhile, Space X continues to experience setbacks in its Mars colonization program. On Tuesday, a prototype of the Starship vehicle exploded over the Indian Ocean during a test flight.
Musk also revealed plans to step back from political donations after having reportedly spent nearly $250 million in support of Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign.
