Musk leaves Trump administration after criticising president's ‘big beautiful bill'
Washington: Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after leading a tumultuous efficiency drive, during which he upended several federal agencies, but ultimately failed to deliver the generational savings he had sought.
His 'off-boarding will begin tonight', a White House official said late on Wednesday, Washington time, confirming Musk's departure from government. Musk earlier took to his social media platform X to thank US President Donald Trump as his 130 days as a special government employee with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency draws to an end.
While the precise circumstances of his exit were not immediately clear, it came shortly after he criticised Trump's signature legislative priority to cut taxes and lift border security spending, saying it would increase the budget deficit and undermine the work of his DOGE team.
Musk, a key Trump ally and until recently a constant presence in Trump's White House, also complained DOGE became a 'whipping boy' for other problems in the administration.
The world's richest man has stepped back from Washington and returned to the Texas base of his SpaceX venture this week for another rocket test flight, which made it into space but sprang a leak and broke up on re-entry.
Trump is seeking Senate support for his so-called 'big, beautiful bill', which passed the House of Representatives last week. It raises the US debt ceiling by $US4 trillion ($6.2 trillion), extends the tax cuts from Trump's first term that were due to expire at the end of the year, and eliminates tax on tips and overtime until the end of 2028 – a key election promise.
The additional spending wipes out savings made by DOGE, which says it has found savings of $US175 billion – although its 'wall of receipts' amounts to less than half of that figure. On the campaign trail, Musk had said DOGE would be able to cut at least $US2 trillion in federal spending, though he later slashed that ambition.
Earlier, Musk told CBS: '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.
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Musk believed that he would be able to talk to the president at some point after the gathering, privately. But Musk never got a chance to make his case. In the hours after the Oval Office farewell, Trump decided he would withdraw Isaacman from consideration. Musk was stunned by how fast it all happened. Musk's allies have argued privately that Isaacman's recent donations to Democrats were not ideological and made at the encouragement of Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut. A spokesperson for the Democratic senator for Arizona declined to comment. Loading As Musk dealt with the fallout from the tanked nomination, he spent part of the weekend outside Missoula, Montana, as a guest at 'Symposium' – an event for tech executives, investors and startup founders thrown by Founders Fund, the venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel. He mingled with guests at Paws Up, a high-end resort with glamping tents and luxury cabins set on 15,000 hectares of a historic cattle ranch. 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He said he was 'disappointed' in Musk, downplayed the billionaire's financial support for his presidential campaign and posited that Musk developed 'Trump derangement syndrome' after leaving the White House. Musk fired back in real time. Using X, he unleashed a torrent of attacks. He claimed there were references to the president in government documents about Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender, and indicated his support for the president's impeachment. He also said Trump's tariffs would cause a recession by the end of the year. Loading Later, Trump, using his own social media platform, threatened to cut billions of dollars in federal contracts with Musk's companies. By Thursday evening, Musk signalled he would be open to de-escalating the fight, while the president seemed to have little interest in an immediate reconciliation. White House officials said Trump had no plans to call Musk. 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