Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s camaraderie seems to be coming to an end as the President has informed his inner circle that Musk would soon be leaving his advisory position and the head of DOGE. This department was created with the aim of saving more money for the government and that led to mass firing of federal employees, random budget cuts, and other various questionable decisions.
While Trump apparently remains pleased with Musk, they have both decided that the billionaire should be going back to his business instead of being so directly involved with the government as three insiders revealed. However, the real reason behind Musk leaving seems to be related to the fact that he has left Trump’s outsider allies and insider administrative members frustrated with his “unpredictability.” They “increasingly view the billionaire as a political liability, a dynamic that was thrown into stark relief Tuesday when a conservative judge Musk vocally supported lost his bid for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat by 10 points” as Politico reported.
Given the way Trump and Musk were performing together, with the President supporting him in all his decisions and even going as far as calling him President Musk, it was thought that he would find a way to keep Musk in his office beyond the legal 130 days mark. However, with shifting dynamics, it now seems that Musk will leave by late May or early June, when 130 days come to an end.
The White House however, has denied the possibility of any kind of rift existing between Trump and Musk as after the news of the tech billionaire leaving started doing the rounds, Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary referred to it as “garbage” but did not deny that Musk was, in fact, leaving. She mentioned, “Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.”
This “scoop” is garbage. Elon Musk and President Trump have both *publicly* stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete. https://t.co/Brppff6SKi — Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) April 2, 2025
Given how recklessly DOGE worked, a lot of people in Trump’s inner circle are actually relieved that Musk will finally be gone. While the exact reason behind Trump’s decision to not continue with Musk is not yet totally clear, one of the key problems remains to be the lack of communication happening from Musk’s side as the Trump administration has been struggling with this issue since January.
A massive instance of such lack of communication was noted when “New York Times scooped that the Pentagon had planned to brief Musk on classified war plans regarding China — a major potential conflict of interest given Musk’s business dealings there”, as reported by Politico. While this was quickly dismissed by both the Pentagon and the White House, it essentially landed Trump and Chief of Staff Wiles in a tricky position as they tried to gather more information on the same.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Forbes (@forbes)
Musk himself has, however, referred to the news of his exit as “Yeah, fake news.” However, it does seem that the Tesla owner might actually be leaving the government, which might have positive effects on his business also as his dealings and association with the government have quite poorly impacted Tesla’s growth and sales.