Musk Officially Signs Off From DOGE

Elon Musk thanked President Donald Trump as he officially signed off from DOGE duties…

On Wednesday night, Elon Musk made it clear that the reason he was leaving his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project was due to a rule limiting special government employees to 130 days of service rather than any rumored feud with President Donald Trump.

Musk’s departure from government work coincides with his recent remarks indicating he would focus more on his business ventures.

“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,” Musk wrote. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

This week, Musk publicly criticized the tax and spending package championed by Trump, saying, “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”

Musk’s DOGE claims it has saved American taxpayers $175 billion through a “combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.”

Earlier this week, in an interview published in Ars Technica, Musk stated, “I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics, it’s less than people would think, because the media is going to over-represent any political stuff, because political bones of contention get a lot of traction in the media. It’s not like I left the companies. It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I’ve reduced that significantly in recent weeks.”

Along with his major donations to the Republican effort last election cycle, Musk was also a major fixture on the campaign trail, appearing multiple times alongside Trump. 

Howwever, at Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum, Musk said over video that he’s “going to do a lot less in the future.” Musk spent nearly $240 million through his political action committee, America PAC, helping Trump and Republicans in the 2024 election cycle.

“I think I’ve done enough,” Musk said, adding, “If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I do not currently see a reason.”