Donald Trump’s ice maiden freezes Elon Musk out of the West Wing

Elon Musk is no longer based at the White House and mainly stays in touch by phone, chief of staff Susie Wiles revealed.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles keeps an eye on US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC. Picture: AFP

Elon Musk, who declared war on US federal employees working from home, is now no longer based at the White House complex and mainly stays in touch by phone, Susie Wiles, the chief of staff revealed.

Musk pledged to “significantly” cut back his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after profits at Tesla dropped 71 per cent drop as opponents of President Trump shunned his electric vehicle company.

Wiles, the first female chief of staff in US history, who is known as the “Ice Maiden” by Trump for her calm and effective management, fought a battle to minimise Musk’s presence in the West Wing, seeing it as a risk to the collaborative ethos she wants to build.

Musk, who has argued with several White House figures including Trump’s trade counsellor Peter Navarro, led the administration’s demand for government workers to return to the office for 40 hours a week or lose their jobs.

“Instead of meeting with him in person, I’m talking to him on the phone, but it’s the same net effect,” Wiles told The New York Post.

‘He’s not out of it altogether’

Musk “hasn’t been here physically, but it really doesn’t matter much,” she said.

“His folks aren’t going anywhere,” she added, referring to his senior DOGE team who have offices in the Eisenhower Executive Office building near the West Wing.

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

Musk’s formal role as an unpaid special government employee concludes at the end of this month. He will then advise informally

.

Elon Musk speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Washington. Picture: AP

Musk wore a Doge cap at Trump’s latest cabinet meeting yesterday (Wednesday) and donned a second cap that was placed in front of all cabinet members embroidered with “Gulf of America”, Trump’s name for the Gulf of Mexico.

“Mr President, as they say, I wear a lot of hats. Even my hat wears a hat,” Musk said.

Trump responded: “We all want to thank you for your help. You have sacrificed a lot. You’ve been treated very unfairly.”

Musk, whose Tesla forecourts have been attacked by protesters, said: “Well, they did like to burn my cars, which is not great.”

Trump added: “The vast majority of people in this country really respect and appreciate you.”

Musk said on a Tesla earnings call last week: “Starting next month, I will be allocating far more of my time to Tesla.”

‘Major work’ completed

While “the major work of establishing” DOGE has been completed, he will continue to spend a day or two a week on government matters “as long as it is useful”.

Trump claimed that his economic policies would end inflation and boost worker pay by $US5000 as he addressed supporters at a rally to mark his first 100 days back in office.

Stung by a string of opinion polls showing concerns about his handling of the economy, Trump heralded his efforts to pass “the largest tax cuts in American history” that would create “the greatest economy in the history of the world”.

Trump insisted his true approval rating was much higher than shown in the polls and said he was delivering on the “number one thing” that won him the election - the “mass deportation” of illegal migrants.

He showed a video of deported Venezuelan men accused of being criminal gang members arriving at an El Salvador mega jail and having their heads shaved, leading the crowd in Macomb County, Michigan, to break out in chants of “USA! USA!”.

Economic concerns

“This is the best first 100 days of any presidency, and we’ve just gotten started,” Trump told his 4000-strong audience in the swing state which helped him to victory last November.

“The fake news used to say to be a great president you need to serve two terms, well now I’m serving two terms,” Trump said, as many in his audience held up three fingers and chanted “Three, three, three, three”.

Opinion polls to mark his 100-day milestone have highlighted concerns with his economic policies, especially tariffs.

Trump said he had the polls “checked out” and claimed they were biased towards Democrats. “They do these polls where they interview far more Democrats,” he said. “I had them checked out. They say Trump has only a 44 per cent approval rating … if it was legit it would be 60 or 70.”

The Times commissioned polling from YouGov which put Trump’s approval at 42 per cent, with 34 per cent of respondents saying they were Republican voters, 30 per cent Democrats, 26 per cent Independent and 11 per cent not sure or other.

Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-president from his first term, urged him to return to traditional conservative values, abandon trade tariffs and support Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Pence, who is now estranged from Trump, called his return to the White House “a political comeback unrivalled in modern American history” in an article for The Wall Street Journal.

THE TIMES