Elon Musk is leaving Washington: How that affects Trump’s agenda

During his brief stint in the Trump administration, the billionaire left a big mark on the government with his DOGE agency.

Elon Musk said he plans to spend more time working on his companies. Picture: AFP

Elon Musk’s journey through the halls of the US government, a more than four-month period during which he roiled the lives of tens of thousands of government workers and up-ended large federal agencies, is drawing to a close.

The billionaire leader of Tesla and SpaceX is departing the White House, but his fingerprints will remain imprinted on the Trump administration, with members of the Department of Government Efficiency distributed throughout government agencies to advance the president’s government-slashing agenda.

When is Musk leaving the government?

As a special government employee, Musk’s tenure was limited to 130 days, which runs out at the end of May. A White House official said that Musk’s “off boarding” started Wednesday, adding that he hadn’t been a regular presence in the West Wing in recent weeks.

“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote on his social-media platform X late Wednesday.

Democrats took credit for Musk’s decision to leave Washington, arguing that the extensive litigation and public pressure surrounding DOGE forced his hand. “He lost. Democracy won,” wrote Norm Eisen, a co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment trial, on social media.

What did Musk do while in Washington?

Musk came into the government with bold plans to slash spending by as much as $2 trillion. In rapid-fire succession, Musk and his DOGE team dismantled agencies such as the US Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, leaving thousands of federal employees out of work.

Musk and his DOGE team emerged after Trump’s inauguration with a series of shock-and-awe moves that rattled the federal workforce. On the first day of Trump’s administration, DOGE officials effectively took control of the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human-resources arm, and within days created an email system that could contact all federal employees. Using that system, they sent an ultimatum to federal workers — quit now and get months of paid leave or face the possibility of getting fired.

The message had the subject line “Fork in the Road” — the same line Musk had used in a 2022 email to Twitter employees shortly after he took over the company and renamed it X. Tens of thousands of federal workers took the offer.

Musk’s promise to slash the federal budget by trillions of dollars ran into the wall of nondiscretionary spending programs such as Social Security and Medicare. DOGE says it has saved the government $175 billion from a combination of asset sales, contract, lease and grant cancellations, workforce reductions and other moves made since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Observers across the political spectrum have called those claims inflated.

What happens to DOGE?

Much of DOGE’s work will shift to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which will seek to cement roughly tens of billions of dollars in savings in this summer’s budget process. OMB director Russell Vought has worked in tandem with Musk since 2024 and the two have driven the administration’s vision of slashing the federal workforce and reducing spending.

Musk’s companies and allies will continue to have an influence on policymaking and spending. Dozens of employees and associates of Musk and his tech allies have been tapped for roles at federal agencies critical to their businesses, a Wall Street Journal analysis found.

One of Musk’s top lieutenants at DOGE, Steve Davis, has left his role at the top of the government-efficiency agency, the White House said Thursday.

What’s next for Musk?

Musk said he plans to spend more time working on the five companies he runs, including Tesla. The electric-vehicle maker’s shares slumped amid a steep downturn in sales, which analysts have said reflect car buyers’ reaction to Musk’s controversial role in Trump’s administration.

Elon Musk at the Presidential Inauguration parade in January. Picture: AP

Musk will also focus on SpaceX. Earlier this week, his rocket company’s latest flight test for its Starship vehicle fell short of carrying out planned experiments. The spacecraft made it into space, but it wasn’t able to deploy satellite simulators out of a door, an operation designed to help advance the vehicle toward one day deploying SpaceX Starlink satellites. The company later lost control of the vehicle.

Wall Street Journal