Revealed: Elon Musk wanted to stay in White House but was rejected

Telegraph

2 days ago

Elon Musk wanted his work at the White House to be extended but was rebuffed, according to two sources close to the world's richest man.
The billionaire's designation as 'special government employee' to lead a cost-slashing initiative came with a 130-day time limit.
He was given an Oval Office send-off last week as he stepped down as head of the Department of Government Efficiency but has since lashed out at Donald Trump's signature 'big, beautiful bill,' dismissing it as a 'disgusting abomination'.
His intervention, made via his social media site X, sent shockwaves across Washington, where Mr Trump already faced a battle to get his legislation through Congress.
A day later, a Trump world insider said administration officials were 'disappointed' with his reaction.
And a source close to Mr Musk said it was a case of 'sour grapes'.
The damage may have already been done. Mr Musk's criticism has raised fresh question marks over the president's tax-cut and spending bill, with Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump-allied Congresswoman, adding her voice to opposition.
The result is a headache for a president who has put the bill at the heart of his second 100 days in office. He has disappeared from view for days at a time to work the phones and grease its path through a Congress where Republicans have the very slightest of majorities.
Mr Trump's allies are quietly briefing that Mr Musk's outburst was the work of a businessman out to protect vested interests and piqued at having to leave his government role.
The source said he had asked to stay on to make more progress towards his target of slashing $1 trillion from spending but was told that would not be possible.
They said there were other points of contention, first reported by Axios: the bill scraps the electric vehicle tax credit that has helped car makers including Mr Musk's Tesla; his efforts to persuade the Federal Aviation Administration to buy his Starlink satellites for air traffic control were unsuccessful; and at the weekend the administration withdrew the nomination of a Musk ally to head Nasa.
His fury was unleashed in a series of posts that lasted into the early hours.
He wrote on X:
I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore.
This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025
The bill is at the core of Mr Trump's domestic policy promises. It makes permanent a string of existing tax cuts, and adds tax breaks on tips and overtime – two key campaign commitments.
Critics say it does not offer enough savings to outweigh that loss of revenue. And on Wednesday the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it would add about $2.4 trillion to the national debt, which already stands at a record $36.2 trillion.
The bill has already passed the House.
But the deficit numbers are enough for several key Republican senators to say they will have to see bigger savings if they are to vote yes in a chamber where they have a majority of only 53 to 47.
Mr Musk added: 'If the massive deficit spending continues, there will only be money for interest payments and nothing else! No social security, no medical, no defence … nothing.'
A figure close to the White House said officials were upset by the nature of his attack.
'It's safe to say people are disappointed,' he said. 'He's done a lot of really great work, and he's fundamentally changed the way things like fraud, waste and abuse are viewed in Washington.
'But he left. So he speaks now as a business person, not as a government entity and that's the way to understand what he says.'
The White House shrugged off Mr Musk's intervention.
'The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn't change the president's opinion,' said Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary.
Yet the White House must now reckon with new questions. On Tuesday, Ms Greene said she would not have voted for the bill if she had realised it barred states from regulating AI for a decade.
'I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there,' she posted on X.
Her failure to read the full text of the bill triggered an immediate wave of ridicule, but Matt Lewis, a conservative podcast and author, said it indicated that Mr Trump's legislation was in for a rough ride.
'I think what Elon Musk and Marjorie Taylor Greene have done is create a permission structure whereby you can oppose this bill and, unless Trump intervenes – because he is still the dominant force in the Republican Party – then I think that opposition is going to take off and this bill is in jeopardy, or Senate Republicans will make dramatic changes to it,' he said.