Elon Musk Leaving Trump Admin and DOGE: 5 Takeaways

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that he is leaving the government because his 130-day mandate as a special government employee has expired. Musk served as the front-man for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk and President Donald Trump appeared in the Oval Office May 30 to answer questions. The president credited the Tesla billionaire with “a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington” and said some of his staff would remain with the Trump administration.

Trump Seeks to End Musk Tenure on High Note

Trump appeared eager to end Musk’s service on a high note this week. “This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way,” Trump wrote on social media on Thursday evening. “Elon is terrific!”

“I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job,” Musk said after accepting a ceremonial key from the president. “They’re going to continue to be doing an incredible job.”

Trump said Musk had led the “most sweeping and consequential government reform effort in generations.” He suggested that Musk is “really not leaving” and “he’s going to be back and forth” to keep tabs on what’s happening in the administration.

DOGE Unfairly Targeted, Musk Says

Musk told reporters DOGE was unfairly blamed for actions it never took. He complained that when any efforts were made to reduce the size of government, “people would assume that was done by DOGE.”

Musk added that his DOGE team became essentially “the DOGE bogeyman” during his time in Washington.

“I hope to continue to provide advice whenever the president would like,” Musk said at the news conference Friday.

DOGE Goes On

Trump noted in the presser that DOGE employees will remain embedded with government agencies and said the billionaire will probably want to keep tabs on “his baby.”

Musk has brushed off questions about how DOGE would continue without him, even suggesting it could “gain momentum” in the future. “DOGE is a way of life,” he told reporters in a recent interview.

Musk’s tenure as a special government employee in the Trump administration was set to expire around May 30, and he told Tesla investors last month that he would be leaving in May.

Tesla posted losses in profit and revenue during the first three months of 2025, amid protests due to Musk’s affiliation with the Trump administration and DOGE.

DOGE was established by Trump in January as a task force designed to root out what the administration deems to be fraud, waste, and abuse from the federal government. It’s due to expire on July 4, 2026.

So far, it reports around $175 billion has been saved via cancellations of grants, contracts, and leases.

In an interview in late April, Musk said that DOGE may continue past the July 4, 2026, date and could go on for the entirety of Trump’s second term, which expires in early 2029.

“There’s a long way to go. It’s pretty difficult. … It’s like: How much pain is the Cabinet and Congress willing to take? It can be done. But it requires dealing with a lot of complaints,” he told Axios.

Musk echoed those statements in an interview at a Qatari forum last week, saying that it’s up to Congress and various federal agencies to act on DOGE’s recommendations to slash large amounts of spending. He reiterated that DOGE’s role serves merely as an advisory function, and its staff are “not dictators.”

Who Is Leading DOGE?

According to filings in multiple lawsuits against DOGE and the federal government, the White House has said that Amy Gleason is the administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service. Gleason was in charge of the U.S. Digital Service, which is now renamed to DOGE, during the first Trump term.

In a court filing submitted in March related to one of those lawsuits, Gleason said that Musk “does not work” for the U.S. DOGE Service and she doesn’t report to Musk.

“I do not report to him, and he does not report to me,” Gleason continued. “To my knowledge, he is a Senior Advisor to the White House.”

Musk Leaving as Tesla Reports Profit Declines

Profits plunged 71 percent at Tesla in the first three months of the year, shortly after a Chinese competitor claimed the mantle of the world’s biggest electric car seller.

A report released this week shows that sales of Tesla have plunged across Europe in the past month or so. Musk’s company sold only 7,261 cars in Europe last month, down from 14,228 a year ago—a drop of 49 percent.

Meanwhile, overall electric vehicle sales in the region increased by nearly 28 percent, suggesting Tesla is losing ground despite demand.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.