WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Elon Musk and President Donald Trump did not have a formal conversation Wednesday, the day Musk departed his controversial, headline-making stint at the Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE.
Instead, the departure of the world’s richest man was facilitated at a senior staff level, a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity told NewsNation.
Trump’s self-proclaimed “first buddy” is stepping down from his role as a special government employee after leading an effort to slash spending and shutter federal agencies. Musk was restricted to serving 130 days in a 365-day period because of his special employment status. The deadline is set to be met on Friday, May 30.
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Musk began the process of offboarding Wednesday evening, “essentially just the necessary paperwork one does when leaving a job,” another White House official noted.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief, who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to secure Trump’s return to power, took to X, the social media platform he owns, on Wednesday to thank the president for the “opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.” He added that the cost-cutting initiative would continue without him.
“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” Musk wrote.
DOGE initially vowed to cut $2 trillion in government spending, but within four months, the target had shifted to less than a tenth of that amount, at $150 billion.
In an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” ahead of his departure, Musk delivered a sharp rebuke of Trump’s domestic policy agenda by alleging the new Republican spending bill would increase the federal deficit and “undermine” the work of the DOGE team.
Musk underscored he has “differences of opinion” with the Trump administration but feels “stuck in a bind” when it comes to speaking out against it.
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White House officials insist Musk left on good terms with Trump.
Musk has since refocused on his businesses, which have been negatively impacted by his time in politics. Tesla, in particular, has seen falling sales. He announced on X that he would be “back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms… I must be super focused.”
Steve Davis, a longtime Musk loyalist and his right-hand man at DOGE, and Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for the cost-cutting endeavor who is married to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, have also parted ways with the Trump administration, according to a White House official.
Trump said he will be hosting a press conference with Musk in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon.
“This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House,” the president posted on Truth Social.
