New Delhi: Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, is leaving his role at DOGE—the body tasked with slashing the size of the federal government, launched by US President Donald Trump earlier this year. Musk’s departure comes a day after he criticised the Republican spending bill backed by Trump.
The tech billionaire’s whirlwind 4 months as a special government employee witnessed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) attempt to slash the federal workforce and cut government spending, often with drastic measures.
DOGE’s operations hindered foreign aid programmes of the US under USAID, as well as drastically cut other federal programmes, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
“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,” Musk said in a post on the social media platform X, which he also owns, Wednesday.
Musk was appointed as a “Special Government Employee” by the White House, a temporary posting, which allows an individual to work for 130 days during a 365-day period. The period of 130 days was coming to an end Friday. His exit, while expected, comes as reports indicate growing fault lines between him and the President in the past few weeks.
Trump’s “First Buddy” criticised the Republican-led spending bill, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives last week, for increasing the budget deficit and for undermining “the work that DOGE team is doing”.
“I think a bill could be big or could be beautiful. But I do not know if it could be both,” Musk said in an interview with CBS earlier this week. The bill dubbed as “big” and “beautiful” by Trump will see the national deficit rise by around $3.8 trillion by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The bill will boost defence spending, while making cuts to welfare and further proposing multi-trillion-dollar tax cuts. The bill must pass through the US Senate before it can be signed into law.
Musk’s DOGE originally envisioned cutting around $2 trillion from the roughly $6.8 trillion federal budget. Before Trump’s inauguration in January, Musk acknowledged that such a goal may be unrealistic, but hoped that by keeping the goal at $2 trillion, DOGE could hit at least $1 trillion in spending cuts.
However, the goal has since dropped to around $200 billion. Musk’s “chainsaw” approach to government spending saw around 260,000 Federal employees fired or taking voluntary retirement packages from the overall workforce of around 2.3 million. A number of the federal workers fired by the US government have since gone to the courts.
The rapid firing process also saw a number of federal employees fired, before being given offers to be re-hired, including those from the US nuclear programme. The cuts initiated by DOGE faced numerous criticisms, with courts reinstating some of the fired employees and in other instances blocking the process.
As on 26 May, the total savings to the federal budget as announced by DOGE stands at an estimated $175 billion. However, reports indicate that the calculation of savings by the initiative could be erroneous in certain circumstances.
For example, the DOGE’s largest contract cancellation—$2.9 billion for a facility to house unaccompanied migrant children—is the total contract value from 2023 till 2028. The contract had to be renewed annually, and had been done so for the first two years in operation. The DOGE numbers do not account for the already elapsed payments.
In the middle of April, Musk announced that he will be stepping back from government work by the end of May during an earnings call with the investors of Tesla. This comes after the electric vehicle manufacturer saw the net income for the company drop a whopping 71 percent in the first quarter of 2025. Sales for the company also dipped roughly 20 percent.
Tesla has seen a number of protests and calls for boycotts by activists this year, following Musk’s role in the American government. US Attorney General Pam Bondi had to step in and warn that any acts of vandalism against Tesla would be considered as an act of “domestic terrorism”.
Musk bankrolled Trump’s reelection campaign in 2024, spending close to a quarter of a million dollars and has further promised roughly $100 million to the President’s campaign before the midterm elections in 2026.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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