Elon Musk leaves Trump administration
What's the story
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has announced his departure from the Trump administration, where he served as a special government employee.
He headed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aimed to reduce and restructure the federal bureaucracy.
In a post on his social media platform X, Musk thanked President Donald Trump for the opportunity to "reduce wasteful spending."
He also stated that the DOGE mission will continue even after his departure.
Ambitious goals
Musk's ambitious goals and challenges in government role
A White House official told Reuters it was true Musk is leaving the administration, and his "off-boarding will begin tonight."
Musk's role was always intended to be temporary, and he recently signaled that he would return to overseeing his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX.
He was designated a "special government employee," which allowed him to work a federal job for 130 days.
Musk would reach that limit by the end of May when measured from Trump's inauguration on January 20.
Departure impact
Musk's departure and its implications
During his time at DOGE, Musk planned to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget, but he later reduced it to $150 billion.
As a result of DOGE, an estimated 260,000 of the federal civilian workforce of 2.3 million people have lost their jobs or received redundancy packages.
For his initiatives, he sometimes clashed with other prominent members of Trump's cabinet, who resented the newcomer's efforts to reorganize their departments.
Business focus
Musk slams 'big beautiful bill'
At one point, he called White House trade adviser Peter Navarro a "moron" for dismissing his push for "zero tariffs" between the US and Europe.
Musk's departure also comes a day after he criticized Trump's "big beautiful bill," which proposes multi-trillion dollar tax breaks and a boost to defense expenditure.
"A bill can be big..beautiful, I don't know if it could be both," he said.
He stated that DOGE had become "the whipping boy" for problems within the federal government.