'Elon is terrific': Trump bids farewell to Musk on his final day at DOGE
US President Donald Trump gave Elon Musk a warm send off on Friday, the tech billionaire's final day in his White House position.
Musk had been granted special government employee status to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
During his short but turbulent stint in government, Musk oversaw major cuts to the federal workforce as part of Trump's administration's efforts to reduce federal spending.
He set a lofty $2 trillion goal in reducing federal spending - something he twice revised down, landing at a reduced $150 billion. It is unclear whether that target has been hit, although the DOGE website tallies $175 billion in savings, its information has been riddled with error and embellishments.
Trump celebrated Musk's tenure at a White House press conference, presenting him with a gold-coloured key for his work establishing DOGE - a gift for "very special people".
Questions were raised about Musk's seemingly black eye. He responded by saying the bruise had happened when he was "horsing around" with "little X" his five-year-old son. "I said, go ahead punch me in the face," he said. "And he did."
Musk's White House departure comes as allegations of drug use were reported in the New York Times on Friday.
During the Oval Office send off, Musk abruptly cut short a question about the report, which claimed he had used drugs "intensely" during Trump's election campaign.
When a reporter tried to raise the article, Musk broke across him; questioning the newspaper's reputation before saying: "Let's move on."
Trump credited Musk with a "colossal change in the old way of doing business in Washington", adding he'll be "back and forth" to keep tabs on what's happening with the administration.
Musk, sporting a T-shirt that said "The Dogefather", said he thought the "DOGE team is doing an incredible job" and said that they are "totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent".
Musk had begun stepping back from full-time government work in recent weeks, to focus on his companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, which have struggled in part as a result of Musk's alliance with the Trump administration.
Tesla's profits plunged 71% in the first three months of the year, with his social media platform X needing to rebuild its advertising base, after long-time advertisers fled when Musk bought the platform back in 2022.
He confirmed his departure from the White House in a post on X on Thursday.
Under Musk's leadership over the first four months of the Trump administration, DOGE has upended the federal government. At least 121,000 federal workers were laid off or targeted for layoffs in Trump's first 100 days, and thousands more took buyout offers. Federal grants and programs have been slashed, and then at times reinstated after court challenges.
As Musk steps back from the Trump administration, he announced last week that he plans to spend 'a lot less' money on politics in the future, but it's still not clear whether the remarks signal any change in his pledge to commit $100 million into political groups controlled by the president.
Musk previously spent more than $290 million to help get Trump and GOP congressional candidates elected in November. Musk-linked groups also shelled out more than $20 million on a Wisconsin Supreme Court race earlier this year that his preferred candidate ultimately lost.
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