Drug claims overshadow Elon Musk’s Oval Office farewell

The billionaire faces accusations he took ketamine, ecstasy, mushrooms and travelled with a pill box last year.

President Donald Trump, right, attends a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office. Picture: AP

Elon Musk faced accusations that he used so much ketamine on the 2024 campaign trail that he developed bladder problems, as the billionaire gave a farewell press conference with Donald Trump.

Mr Musk says he will remain a “friend and advisor” to the US president vowing to keep supporting the team that is “relentlessly pursuing a trillion dollars in waste” in reductions that will “benefit the American taxpayer”.

Just hours before he appeared with Mr Trump in the White House on his last day as the US government’s cost cutter-in-chief, the New York Times reported that Mr Musk’s drug use during last year’s presidential campaign had caused concern among people close to him.

Elon Musk joins Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5, 2024. Picture: AFP

The newspaper said the world’s richest man also took ecstasy and mushrooms and travelled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Mr Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The South African-born tech tycoon, the biggest donor to Trump’s 2024 election campaign, told people that ketamine, an anaesthetic that can cause dissociation, had affected his bladder, the NYT added, noting that it was a known effect of long-term use.

Mr Musk dismissed questions on the reports of his drug taking at Friday’s (Saturday AEST) Oval Office press conference, instead denouncing the NYT over its previous coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election before moving to the next question.

Clad in a black T-shirt and jacket and wearing a baseball cap as he stood next to the seated president, Mr Musk complained about how he has been portrayed, saying: “We became, like, essentially the DOGE bogeyman, where any cut anywhere would be ascribed to DOGE.”

He said he looked “forward to continuing to be a friend and advisor to the president” after Mr Trump handed him a golden key as a farewell gift.

DOGE under Mr Musk’s guidance has slashed billions of dollars in government spending, much of it already approved by Congress, including eviscerating the main US agency delivering foreign aid.

A Boston University study said that tens of thousands of people have already died because of the freeze in funding, a finding earlier denied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We’re totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent and stopping much more of the waste in the months that come,” Mr Trump said.

He said that Mr Musk “is really not leaving” as DOGE is working on further priorities such as “modernization” of the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service, whose ranks have been slashed.

Mr Trump said of Musk: “I have a feeling it’s his baby, and I think he’s going to be doing a lot of things.” Pointing to Mr Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service, Mr Trump said: “Frankly, I don’t think he gets credit for what it’s done, but he’s a very good person”.

AFP, AP