Musk leaves Trump administration after criticising president’s ‘big beautiful bill’

Washington: Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after leading a tumultuous efficiency drive, during which he upended several federal agencies, but ultimately failed to deliver the generational savings he had sought.

His “off-boarding will begin tonight”, a White House official said late on Wednesday, Washington time, confirming Musk’s departure from government. Musk earlier took to his social media platform X to thank US President Donald Trump as his 130 days as a special government employee with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency draws to an end.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk at the White House last week for a meeting between Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.Credit: Bloomberg

While the precise circumstances of his exit were not immediately clear, it came shortly after he criticised Trump’s signature legislative priority to cut taxes and lift border security spending, saying it would increase the budget deficit and undermine the work of his DOGE team.

Musk, a key Trump ally and until recently a constant presence in Trump’s White House, also complained DOGE became a “whipping boy” for other problems in the administration.

The world’s richest man has stepped back from Washington and returned to the Texas base of his SpaceX venture this week for another rocket test flight, which made it into space but sprang a leak and broke up on re-entry.

Trump is seeking Senate support for his so-called “big, beautiful bill”, which passed the House of Representatives last week. It raises the US debt ceiling by $US4 trillion ($6.2 trillion), extends the tax cuts from Trump’s first term that were due to expire at the end of the year, and eliminates tax on tips and overtime until the end of 2028 – a key election promise.

The additional spending wipes out savings made by DOGE, which says it has found savings of $US175 billion – although its “wall of receipts” amounts to less than half of that figure. On the campaign trail, Musk had said DOGE would be able to cut at least $US2 trillion in federal spending, though he later slashed that ambition.

Earlier, Musk told CBS: “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.

“I think a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both,” he said in an excerpt. The full interview will air on the weekend.

In a separate interview with The Washington Post, Musk said bureaucracy in Washington was worse than he realised and bemoaned the scrutiny DOGE had come under as it made at-times sweeping cuts to federal agencies in the name of efficiency.

“DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,” Musk said. “So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.”

Musk’s opposition to Trump’s signature tax bill represents a second major split between him and the president on policy, after he took issue with the government’s planned tariff regime, which has now been scaled back.

In that case, Musk directed his ire at Trump’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro, calling him “dumber than a sack of bricks” and “truly a moron”, and repeatedly branding him “Peter Retarrdo” in posts on X.

The White House brushed aside that skirmish as a case of “boys will be boys”. But Musk’s comments on the tax bill could add weight to criticism from “small government” Republicans, with the bill not guaranteed to pass the Senate.

Donald Trump advertised Teslas in a photo opportunity outside the White House with Elon Musk in March.Credit: AP

Kentucky senator Rand Paul said the bill would “explode the debt”, which sits at about $US37 trillion. “Until everyone in Washington gets serious about paying down our national debt, I’m a no,” he said.

Trump ignored a question about Musk’s critique on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), but noted the bill would need nearly every Republican vote to pass the Senate. “I’m not happy about certain aspects of [the bill] but I’m thrilled about other aspects,” he said.

He also took umbrage at a question about “TACO” – an acronym reportedly doing the rounds among Wall Street traders standing for “Trump Always Chickens Out”, a reference to the president’s tendency to backflip on tariffs he has announced or threatened.

Trump said it was a nasty question. “It’s called negotiation. You set a number. If I set a number, a ridiculous, high number, and I go down a little bit … they want me to hold that number. A 145 per cent tariff. Even I said … whoa, that’s high,” he said of his initial tariffs on China, now reduced to 30 per cent.

“Don’t ever say what you said. To me, that’s the nastiest question.”

DOGE’s work has drawn lawsuits over its authority and access to government data, and Musk has faced questions regarding conflicts of interest for a tech entrepreneur whose varied business interests already make him a major player in federal contracts.

The backlash against Musk over his high-profile political work also sparked concerns among investors over the fallout for his companies, most prominently Tesla.

Musk has openly acknowledged the challenges of managing his businesses – Tesla, SpaceX, XAI Holdings, Neuralink and The Boring Co – along with his work in Washington.

Last week, he indicated he would pull back or cease his massive spending on Republican political causes. He spent close to $US300 million on the 2024 election, including Trump and GOP-backed candidates, and sank another $US20 million into a judicial race in Wisconsin this year.

“I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” he told the Qatari Economic Forum. “I think I’ve done enough.”

With Reuters, Bloomberg

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