Elon Musk says he's stepping back from White House, DOGE duties
Musk made the announcement following U.S. President Donald Trump's Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where he wore two MAGA-branded hats on top of each other with the words 'Gulf of America' printed on them.
'They say I wear a lot of hats, and as you can see, it's true. Even my hat has a hat,' joked Musk.
Musing about his and DOGE's incongruous role in the U.S. government, he said, 'It is funny that we've got DOGE.'
'Doesn't the absurdity of that seem, like, like, are we in a simulation here or what's going on? But, like, it was a meme coin at one point,' he said, laughing. 'How did we get here?' he said.
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Elon Musk, wearing two hats, looks on as U.S. President Donald Trump holds a Cabinet meeting in the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 2025. JIM WATSON / Getty Images
Later, Musk defended DOGE as he prepares to reduce his role, but gave vague answers about the work he's done thus far and the future of the pseudo-governmental agency before addressing the widespread backlash he has received during his short tenure as department chief.
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Musk to step back from DOGE, focus on Tesla after Q1 profit plunge
'Being attacked relentlessly is not super fun,' he said. 'Seeing cars burning is not fun.'
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In protest of Musk's far-reaching role, people across the U.S. and beyond have vandalized and set fire to Teslas. In one instance, suspects rigged multiple vehicles with explosives.
During the first four months of 2024, the once-popular car brand struggled to sell vehicles. The company reported a large 71 per cent drop in first-quarter profits to US$409 million, or 12 cents a share. That's far below analyst estimates. Tesla's revenue fell nine per cent to $19.3 billion in the January through March period, below Wall Street's forecast.
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DOGE is charged with reducing government spending and has made billions of dollars in cuts across multiple federal departments by slashing the workforce and shuttering entire departments.
According to CNN, during Trump's first 100 days in office, his administration laid off 121,000 federal employees, eviscerated the Department of Education and the Department for International Development (USAID), and made significant cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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The gutting of federal agencies has led to dozens of lawsuits, while DOGE's attempts to access sensitive government information, including Social Security data, have met resistance in court, a move Musk openly defended on Wednesday, by claiming the U.S. is already accessing people's private information.
'Don't we already have a surveillance state?' he said, arguing DOGE needs to access the systems in its hunt for fraud, adding, 'There has to be some way to reconcile the improper payments.'
DOGE had set a target to reduce federal spending by $1 trillion, though Musk estimates he's cut $160 billion so far and acknowledged the $1 trillion target was ambitious.
'It's sort of, how much pain is the Cabinet and the Congress willing to take?' Musk said. 'It can be done, but it requires dealing with a lot of complaints,' he said.
Finally, when asked who will take over his role at DOGE when he departs, Musk responded, 'DOGE is a way of life … like Buddhism.'
— With files from The Associated Press
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