Elon Musk ‘no longer working at White House’

The Tesla CEO has said he was going to cut back his time dedicated to the White House - now he’s left his office there entirely.

Elon Musk is no longer regularly working from the White House according to one of Donald Trump’s most trusted staff members.

Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, is preparing to transition out of his official role with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is based a short walk from the Oval Office, but his departure from in-person work has not previously been reported.

“Instead of meeting with him in person, I’m talking to him on the phone, but it’s the same net effect,” White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told The New York Post in an extensive interview to mark Donald Trump’s 100th day in office.

Mr Musk, who defined much of Mr Trump’s initial weeks back in power, “hasn’t been here physically, but it really doesn’t matter much,” she added.

Ms Wiles stressed that “his folks aren’t going anywhere” as they continue work in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the West Wing.

nonetheless. on Wednesday, US time, Mr Musk was present at a meeting of President Trump’s cabinet – that’s despite him not being a cabinet member.

Elon Musk listens during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

At the meeting he donned several MAGA caps that had been placed on the table in front of home, at one point two at the same time.

It’s unclear how often Mr Musk plans to return to the White House campus before his stint as an unpaid special government employee concludes at the end of May. He will then advise the effort informally.

For months, Mr Musk would brief Mr Trump personally in the Oval Office, attend cabinet meetings and frequently travel with the president on Air Force One — often with his young son X joining him — as he touted plans to slash the annual deficit by $1 trillion ($1.5tn), halving the figure.

The precise amount of money that DOGE has cut is unclear.

Elon Musk flashes his T-shirt that reads "DOGE" to the media as he walks on South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

“He’s not out of it altogether. He’s just not physically present as much as he was,” Ms Wiles said.

“The people that are doing this work are here doing good things and paying attention to the details. He’ll be stepping back a little, but he’s certainly not abandoning it. And his people are definitely not.”

Mr Musk tore through Washington during Mr Trump’s initial months back in the White House — leading efforts to gut the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and its 10,000 employees and backing the Office of Management and Budget on a similar crusade to shutter the 1700-person Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Elon Musk had been a fixture at the Trump White House. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

His focus spanned the federal bureaucracy from the Education Department to the Pentagon and many small and mid-sized agencies in between.

Mr Musk’s cuts made him a reviled figure among Democrats and prompted vandals to target cars and charging stations made by Tesla. In a public show of support, Mr Trump publicly purchased an electric vehicle from the company on the White House lawn March 11 and urged the Justice Department to take a heavy hand with vandals he dubbed domestic terrorists.

Last week, Mr Musk said on a Tesla earnings call that “starting next month, I will be allocating far more of my time to Tesla.”

The South Africa-born billionaire added that while “the major work of establishing” DOGE has been completed, he would still be interested in continuing to spend a day or two a week on government matters, “as long as it is useful”.

This story was published by the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Elon Musk ‘no longer working at White House’