Elon Musk is leaving his role in the Trump administration.
The billionaire revealed on X that his scheduled time as a “special government employee” was coming to an end.
Musk had led the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, with the ambition of sacking federal workers and cutting red tape.
“I would like to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” he wrote.
A White House official said reports were accurate, and his “offboarding” would begin immediately.
According to the Reuters news agency, Musk’s exit was decided “at a senior staff level” – and he did not have a formal conversation with the president before making his announcement on X.
It came on the same evening a US court blocked Trump from imposing sweeping global tariffs, with three judges ruling that he had exceeded his authority.
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Elon Musk’s father talks to Sky News, just a few hours before his son confirmed he was stepping down from the Trump administration
Before the news broke, Elon Musk’s father told Sky News that his son was “not a very good politician”.
But speaking to Gillian Joseph on The World, Errol Musk insisted there was “no rift between Elon and Donald Trump”.
Musk’s time at DOGE was controversial, with drastic cuts to America’s humanitarian efforts sparking particular criticism.
Questions have also been raised about whether the department has actually saved taxpayers as much money as suggested.
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23 April: Musk to pull back from DOGE role
Musk initially had ambitions to slash government spending by $2trn (£1.5trn) – but this was dramatically reduced to $1trn (£750bn) and then to just $150bn (£111bn).
The 53-year-old – who famously brought his son X Æ A-12 to the Oval Office – also expressed frustration about resistance to his ideas, and clashed with other senior members of the Trump administration.
He recently told The Washington Post: “The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realised. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC to say the least.”
By law, status as a “special government employee” means he could only serve for a maximum of 130 days, which would have ended around 30 May.
Elon Musk speaks alongside his son X Æ A-12 and Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Pic: Reuters
Nonetheless, Musk has insisted that DOGE will continue to seek savings in his absence – and its mission “will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government”.
The world’s richest man had been facing increasing pressure to divert attention back to his businesses, which include the electric vehicle maker Tesla, the social network X, and SpaceX.
Hours earlier, Sky News’ US partner CNBC reported that a group of Tesla investors had written an open letter demanding the entrepreneur spend at least 40 hours a week working at the company.
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Musk jokes about attacks on Tesla cars
Errol Musk denied that his son had taken his eye off the ball when it came to his companies – noting that Tesla’s share price has surged by 100% over the past 12 months.
“There’s absolutely no problem. Every third car in the US is a Tesla,” he said.
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It comes one day after Musk criticised the centrepiece of Trump’s legislative agenda.
While the president has described the mix of tax cuts and enhanced immigration enforcement as his “big beautiful bill”, Musk argued it was a “massive spending bill” that would increase the deficit and undermine DOGE’s work.
