Elon Musk is stepping back from his role in the US Government, as he thanked President Donald Trump on his departure.
After supporting US President Donald Trump during his election campaign, Elon Musk was appointed to lead a new federal advisory body called the Department for Government Efficiency (Doge).
Just over four months after being appointed to the ‘special’ role, Musk revealed that he would now be returning to focus on his other business projects, such as SpaceX.
Confirming his departure, Musk took to X to thank the US president, maintaining that his exit from the White House was scheduled.
“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.”
The BBC reported that the White House began "offboarding" Musk on Wednesday evening.
So what exactly was Musk’s role and why is leaving now?
What is Doge?
Doge stands for the Department of Government Efficiency. However, it is believed to have been intentionally abbreviated to tie into Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency in which Musk is thought to have investments.
There were initial concerns that the creation of Doge could influence the value of Dogecoin, with some alleging that it could result in market manipulation.
Doge's mission is focused on IT upgrades aimed at improving government efficiency. The executive order mandates that it must complete its work by July 2026.
Its staff are mainly young professionals, many of whom have a background in tech, reflecting the same trends seen in Musk’s other companies, such as Tesla and X.
Although Musk has now departed the White House, it is understood that Doge will continue operating without the Tesla boss until at least this summer.
Is Elon Musk a US government employee?
Although Musk initially stated that he would take on the role as a volunteer, the White House later confirmed that he was working as an unpaid special government employee.
This designation applies to individuals who work for the government for 130 days or fewer per year, which aligns with his departure this week.
The outsider nature of Musk and the Doge department reportedly aligns with its purpose: identifying inefficiencies within the government.
What has Elon Musk done for the US government?
Doge’s goal was to improve efficiency and save the government money, with Musk initially claiming he hoped to save $2 trillion (£1.59 billion) — an estimate he later reduced.
It is hard to judge how much money Doge has saved so far. However, Musk has made unverified claims about the department’s achievements on X.
He has claimed that Doge representatives have been assigned to various departments to monitor spending. Trump said the department had identified "fraud and abuse", without providing specific examples or evidence.
Musk also said that his team had "saved taxpayers over $1 billion (£790 million) in crazy DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] contracts".
The US has also reduced funding to USAid, America's primary foreign aid organisation, a decision attributed to Doge. However, a judge later ordered the funding cuts to be reversed.
Additionally, a buyout offer was made to two million government employees as part of an effort to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
Musk made headlines by announcing on X that an email would be sent to federal employees to highlight their achievements while at work.
According to Reuters, Doge says it made savings of $175 billion, but the news agency was unable to verify these claims.
Why did Musk step back from the White House?
The role was always expected to be finite and have a time frame applied to it. Musk was meant to come in on an advisory role, to make savings and recommendations, and then when the country was deemed by the President to be in more order, for the mogul to step back.
Recent numbers from Tesla could also be the driving force behind that, with a lot of the work Musk wanted to get done while in the US Government reportedly almost done.
In an announcement over the fall in profits, Tesla warned investors that the financial struggle could continue, declining to offer a growth forecast for the coming months and year, instead saying "changing political sentiment" could meaningfully hurt demand.
The tech boss contributed more than a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump's re-election and his political involvement has sparked protests and boycotts of Tesla around the world.
He blamed the "blowback" on people who would "try to attack me and the Doge team", calling his work at Doge "critical" and saying that "getting the government house in order is mostly done".
In recent interviews, Musk appeared to distance himself from the White House by criticising Trump’s tax bill and reinforcing his commitment to other business projects like Tesla.
According to Reuters, Musk didn’t have a formal conversation with Trump regarding his departure. At the time of writing, the US president has yet to address Musk’s departure on his social media platform.
It comes days after Musk wrote on social media: “Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms. I must be super focused on 𝕏/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out.”
Despite appearing to put on a united front, reports suggest Musk may be trying to distance himself from the US president’s latest policies and has gone as far as criticising Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ tax bill.
It follows a tumultuous four months, in which Musk had sought to slash government spending through thousands of federal job layoffs and budget cuts at the helm of Trump’s newly created Doge agency. His political involvement has sparked protests and boycotts of Tesla cars around the world.
