Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after leading a tumultuous efficiency drive to shrink the size of US government.
Thousands of federal jobs were axed but the billionaire Tesla owner ultimately failed to deliver generational savings he had sought.
Musk took to his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to thank President Donald Trump as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) drew to an end.
A White House official confirmed his departure from Doge telling Reuters late on Wednesday the “off-boarding will begin tonight”.
Musk’s quick and unceremonious exit from the temporary role is not unexpected after his tenure overlapped with a significant decline in sales at his electric car company.
Musk wrote on X: “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.
“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
According to reports, he did not have a formal conversation with Trump before announcing his departure which was decided “at a senior staff level”.
But it comes a day after Musk criticised the marquee tax bill - a legislative centrepiece of Trump’s agenda - calling it too expensive and a measure that would undermine his work with DOGE.
Some senior officials, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, were particularly irked by those comments.
The White House was forced to call Republican senators to reiterate Trump's support for the package, a source familiar with the matter said.
While The South African-born tech tycoon Musk nicknamed “the First Buddy” remains close to the president, his exit comes after a gradual, but steady slide in standing.
He told the Washington Post on Tuesday: “DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything.
“Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.”
On the campaign trail, Musk had said DOGE would be able to cut at least $2 trillion (£1.4 trillion) in federal spending.
DOGE currently estimates its efforts have saved $175 billion (£130bn) so far, a number which is not able to be independently verified.
An estimated 260,000 out of the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce have had their jobs cut or accepted redundancy deals as a result of Doge.
In some cases, federal judges blocked the mass firings and ordered terminated employees to be reinstated.
Musk did not hide his distain for the workforce. He predicted that revoking “the COVID-era privilege” of working from home would trigger “a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome”.
