Elon Musk to reportedly leave Department of Government Efficiency, says 'scheduled time' has come to 'an end'

Elon Musk has just announced that he will no longer serve as one of President Donald Trump’s top advisers. In a post on X, the South African-born mogul elaborated on his decision to step away from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

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

While his role always had a clear start and end date, Musk’s departure was not merely a shift into a less official capacity,

Elon Musk and DOGE

Musk was appointed to the Department of Government Efficiency at the beginning of Donald Trump’s second presidential term. During that time, his mission was to monitor spending and help redirect wasted funds into more actionable sectors. Additionally, part of his role as a White House adviser to DOGE involved working towards making significant cuts to areas of the government that the administration considers unnecessary.

The timing of Musk’s departure is intriguing, as it occurs a day after he criticized President Trump’s budget legislation agenda. He expressed his concerns about accepting the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” an overhaul of the current budget plan that was just barely passed by the House on May 22.

In speaking with CBS Sunday Morning, the tech guru clearly stated that the passage of this megabill would increase the national deficit and undermine his recent work with the DOGE.

“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. I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both.”

Musk’s latest comments about the administration’s fiduciary agenda come at a time when the tech genius has pledged to take a significant step back from his work at the White House to shift his focus to his other ventures. This was confirmed by multiple sources within the party who were informed directly by the President in April.

Further, in an interview with The Washington Post on May 27, Musk divulged that he felt the DOGE project was unfairly assigned blame for issues within the administration that had nothing to do with its mission or role. This clearly frustrated the entrepreneur, who believes his time could be better spent elsewhere.

“DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything. So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.”

He then went on to comment on the current state of the bureaucracy,

“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.”

Musk’s dismay with the administration is evident, and it appears that a friendly separation now benefits both parties more than a dramatic fallout later.

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