Musk Officially Leaves DOGE

Elon Musk is beginning the process of stepping down from his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO posted on X on Wednesday night that his time as a special government employee is coming to an end and thanked President Donald Trump for the opportunity to cut down on wasteful spending.

"The ⁦‪@DOGE‬⁩ mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government," Musk wrote in his post. The White House confirmed to FOX that Musk's post is accurate and offboarding will begin Wednesday night.

Musk has been the public face of DOGE since Trump signed an executive order establishing the office on Jan. 20. DOGE has since ripped through federal government agencies in a quest to identify and end government overspending, corruption and fraud.

He was officially hired as a "special government employee," which is a role Congress created in 1962 that allows the executive or legislative branch to hire temporary employees for specific short-term initiatives.

Special government employees are permitted to work for the federal government for "no more than 130 days in a 365-day period," according to data from the Office of Government Ethics. Musk's 130-day timeframe, beginning on Inauguration Day, was set to run dry on May 30.

DOGE is a temporary cross-departmental organization that was established to slim down and streamline the federal government. The group itself will be dissolved on July 4, 2026, according to Trump's executive order.

Musk and Trump have both previously previewed that Musk's role was temporary and would end in the spring.

"You, technically, are a special government employee and you're supposed to be 130 days," Fox News' Bret Baier asked Musk during an exclusive interview with Musk and DOGE team members in April. "Are you going to continue past that or do you think that's what you're going to do?"

"I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that timeframe," Musk responded.

Trump hinted at Musk's departure in comments to reporters on March 31 when he was asked if he wants Musk to remain in a government role for longer than the predetermined 130 days.

"I think he's amazing. But I also think he's got a big company to run," Trump said in March. "And so at some point he's going to be going back."

"I'd keep him as long as I can keep him," Trump said. "He's a very talented guy. You know, I love very smart people. He's very smart. And he's done a good job," the president added. "DOGE is, we've found numbers that nobody can even believe."

More recently, Musk said during a Tesla earnings call on April 22 that he will take a step back from his work as DOGE's leader.

"I think starting probably in next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly," Musk said during Tesla’s earnings conference call. "I’ll have to continue doing it for, I think, the remainder of the president’s term just to make sure the waste and fraud that we stopped does not come roaring back, which it will do if it has the chance. So I think I’ll continue to spend, you know, a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it is useful."

"But starting next month," he added, "I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done."

Amid Musk's work with DOGE, Democrats and activists have staged protests against the tech billionaire and his companies, including working to tank Tesla stocks.

Musk has been the public face of DOGE for months, but is not an employee of the United States DOGE Service and does not report to the acting DOGE chief, according to a court filing in March that shed additional light on the internal workings of the office.

"Elon Musk does not work at USDS. I do not report to him, and he does not report to me. To my knowledge, he is a Senior Advisor to the White House," Amy Gleason, the acting administrator of DOGE, wrote in a declaration included in a court filing.

Gleason previously worked for the United States Digital Service, which was founded in 2014 by former President Barack Obama as a technology office within the Executive Office of the President. Trump signed an executive order in January that renamed the office to the United States DOGE Service, establishing DOGE.

Though Musk has been the public face of DOGE, he "has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself" and is working as a senior advisor to the president, a White House official said in a separate court filing back in February.

Musk emerged as an ardent supporter of Trump at the height of the election cycle over the summer, officially endorsing Trump after the first assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.

"I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery," Musk posted to X shortly after the attempt, accompanied by footage of Trump raising a fist and shouting "Fight, fight, fight!" after he was left bloodied by the assassination attempt.

Musk hosted Trump on X for an expansive interview while on the campaign trail.

Across Musk's tenure as a special government employee, Trump has praised the tech billionaire for his efforts to streamline the government and cut it of overspending, including during his first address to a joint session of Congress since his second inauguration.

"Thank you, Elon. He’s working very hard. He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it, I believe. They just don’t want to admit that," Trump said in March during his address, quipping that Democrats were even grateful for Musk's work at DOGE.