Elon Musk leaves White House sporting a black eye
Elon Musk sported a black eye to accept the Key to the White House from President Trump at a bizarre farewell ceremony in the Oval Office where he revealed how he got his shiner.
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Donald Trump’s “first buddy” Elon Musk has officially left the White House, but not before a final chaotic White House press conference where the former DOGE boss arrived with a black eye.
When asked how he copped the shiner, Mr Musk revealed it happened while “horsing around” with his five-year-old son “Lil X.”
“I said, ‘go ahead and punch me in the face’ and he did,” Mr Musk said.
President Donald Trump didn’t put it past the youngster.
“X could do it …,” Mr Trump said, adding: “I didn’t notice it, actually.”
The President described Mr Musk’s service to the American public as “without comparison in modern history”.
Mr Musk, who was dressed in a T-shirt emblazoned with the words The Dogefather, stood next to the President as he outlined the achievements of the Department of Government Efficiency under the tech billionaire.
Musk said his exit was not the end of DOGE but the beginning, and said he would continue to be a “friend and adviser” to the President.
“If there is anything the President wants me to do, I’m at the President’s service,” he said.
Mr Musk said he expected that over time, the savings created through DOGE would reach as high as $1 trillion dollars.
Asked what would be easier – colonising Mars through his SpaceX company or making the government efficient, Mr Musk laughed and said while it was a close call, creating multi-planetary life was more difficult than DOGE’s work.
Mr Trump acknowledged the enormous backlash faced by his adviser during his work saying he faces the “slings and arrows” of critics.
“ … which is a shame, because he’s an incredible patriot,” Mr Trump said.
“The good news is that 90 per cent of the country knows that, and they appreciate it, and they really appreciate what he did.”
Mr Trump also presented Musk with the Key to the White House as a farwell gesture.
‘DISAPPOINTED TO SEE THE MASSIVE SPENDING BILL’
Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “first buddy” Elon Musk is officially exiting the White House.
In a post on X late Wednesday local time, the entrepreneur confirmed reports he was stepping back from his position in which he spearheaded the controversial Department of Government Efficiency.
“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President (Trump) for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Mr Musk wrote.
“The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
Mr Musk had previously told shareholders in his companies including Tesla that he intended to spend less time in Washington DC to focus on his businesses.
He conceded in an interview earlier this week that he had spent too much time dabbling in politics.
Mr Musk was also critical of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” legislation that has been a key focus of Mr Trump.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit – not just decreases it – and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” he said.
Mr Musk said during his time in Washington he realised the “federal bureaucracy” was worse than he had anticipated.
“I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC to say the least.”
‘WHIPPING BOY’: MUSK’S FURY AT WHITE HOUSE
Musk’s bromance with Mr Trump was tested, after he slammed the White House for “undermining” him and treating DOGE like “whipping boys”.
The billionaire Tesla CEO unleashed on Mr Trump’s $US3.8 trillion spending bill, saying: “It undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing”.
Mr Musk went on to tell CBS: “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it.”
The tech billionaire also unleashed over the treatment of the Department of Government Efficiency.
“DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,” he told the Washington Post.
“Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.”
The sudden twist in Mr Musk’s relationship with Mr Trump comes after he swung in as one of his biggest financial donors and supporters who helped secure him his US election win.
He also spoke out against those who have taken to the streets around the world and protested against his electric Tesla cars, which have seen sales decline.
“People burning Teslas,” he told The Washington Post. ‘Why would you do that?’
“I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics,” Mr Musk said a separate interview with ARS Technica.
“It’s not like I left the companies. It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I’ve reduced that significantly in recent weeks.”
Mr Musk went on to criticise Mr Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both,’ he said. “My personal opinion.”
The bill is estimated to add another $US3.8 trillion to the national debt by 2034.
MUSK’S STARSHIP ROCKET EXPLODES
Mr Musk’s comments come as SpaceX’s prototype Starship exploded over the Indian Ocean capping another bumpy test flight for the rocket central to billionaire Elon Musk’s dream of colonising Mars.
The biggest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built lifted off from the company’s Starbase facility, near a southern Texas village that earlier this month voted to become a city – also named Starbase.
Excitement ran high among SpaceX engineers and spectators alike, after the last two outings ended with the upper stage disintegrating in fiery cascades over the Caribbean.
But signs of trouble emerged quickly: the first-stage Super Heavy booster blew up instead of executing its planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
A live feed then showed the upper-stage spaceship failing to open its doors to deploy a payload of Starlink satellite “simulators.” Though the ship flew farther than on its two previous attempts, it sprang leaks and began spinning out of control as it coasted through space.
Mission teams vented fuel to reduce the force of the expected explosion, and on-board cameras cut out roughly 45 minutes into what was meant to be a 66-minute flight – falling short of its target splashdown zone off Australia’s west coast.
“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” SpaceX posted on X — a familiar euphemism for fiery failure – while stressing it would learn from the setback.
Musk, meanwhile, vowed to pick up the pace: “Launch cadence for the next 3 flights will be faster – approximately one every 3 to 4 weeks,” he said.
He did not say, however, whether he still planned to deliver a live stream about Mars that SpaceX had been promoting.
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Originally published as Elon Musk leaves White House sporting a black eye
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