Elon Musk is leaving his role as the driving force behind the Department of Government Efficiency initiative, a position he held for the last 130 days, on Friday, after legal setbacks, conflicts with Cabinet members, and a lack of evidence to support claims of government savings or efficiency.
During his 130-day tenure, Musk faced growing disapproval ratings, financial stress in his business empire, and a rift between the world’s richest man and his most powerful political leader. His journey was not without challenges.
Framing his departure as the end of his “scheduled period” as a special government employee, Musk’s exit from the federal government will likely do little to change DOGE’s work in executing Trump’s vision of reducing federal bureaucracy and purging people and programs the president disagrees with.
However, many of Musk’s allies are embedded in federal agencies as full-time employees, such as a group of young General Services Administration staffers who have tried to expand DOGE’s reach beyond the executive branch—in some cases, even attempting to incorporate it into non-governmental entities and the executive branch.
Other lawsuits have focused on an area where DOGE achieved great success: accumulating sensitive government data and combining it into massive databases. Several federal judges have raised concerns about DOGE’s access to data and its intended use. In some cases, it appears that DOGE and the Trump administration are using the data for immigration enforcement purposes.
Musk’s golden chainsaw has lost its teeth
Before joining the second Trump administration, Musk had the ambitious goal of cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget. Earlier this year, Musk took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference, wielding a chainsaw to illustrate his spending cuts initiative. However, his target was revised downward several times, reaching about $150 billion, which he said would be saved by the end of the fiscal year in September.
NPR reporting has repeatedly found that DOGE’s savings claims were exaggerated, inaccurate, and based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how the federal budget works.
Musk’s pressure for federal employees to send short emails listing their weekly accomplishments was rejected by some chiefs of staff. This was one of several ways his Silicon Valley experience clashed with Washington customs.
Reporting from NPR and other outlets has highlighted numerous examples of DOGE-led changes that likely made the government less efficient. This includes initiatives like eliminating a technology unit within the GSA that helped improve digital services across agencies, despite encouraging a return to the office amid shortages of desks, internet access, and even toilet paper, as well as freezing government payment card spending, which hampered workers’ ability to buy basic supplies and much more.
Trump bids farewell to Elon Musk in the Oval Office
Trump credited Musk with “a colossal change in the old way of doing business in Washington” and said some of his staff would remain in the government.
“I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job,” Musk said after receiving a ceremonial key from the president. “They will continue doing an incredible job.”
Trump said Musk led the “most comprehensive and consequential government reform effort in generations.” He suggested that Musk “really isn’t leaving” and “will be in and out” to keep tabs on what’s happening in the government.
“This will be his last day, but not really, because he will always be with us, helping all the way,” Trump wrote on social media on Thursday night. “Elon is incredible!”
What’s next for Musk?
With Musk’s departure from the federal government, his return to his various companies, especially Tesla, his main source of wealth, may signal significant developments in the business world.
As Musk’s work with DOGE intensified, Tesla owners sold their cars, showrooms were vandalized, and profits fell, with some reports suggesting the automaker’s board was considering replacing Musk.
Musk has already directed more of his prolific posts on his social network X toward Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink, but not before announcing his exit from the federal government, promising that DOGE would only grow stronger “as it becomes a lifestyle throughout the government”.
Source: www.npr.org and AOL