Elon Musk announces departure from Trump administration, DOGE

WASHINGTON

Billionaire Elon Musk officially announced Wednesday that he is stepping down from his role as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump.

“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 said in a statement posted on X.

“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

A White House official separately confirmed to Anadolu that Musk is departing the administration.

Trump appointed Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency on his first day in office, with the stated goal of eliminating wasteful spending.

Since taking charge, Musk's team has cut thousands of federal jobs.

The department's efforts to fire large numbers of government employees, dismantling agencies such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and accessing sensitive data without oversight have sparked controversy.

The tech billionaire's departure comes amid a split with Trump over the president's signature spending and tax cut legislation, which Musk insists will add to the federal deficit.

"I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk said in an interview with CBS that aired Sunday.

Trump has sought to deny that his "big, beautiful bill" will contribute to the deficit, despite strong criticism from within his own party that it will. The president was able to successfully tamp down an internal rebellion last week over the matter and ushered the bill through the House of Representatives, where it cleared in a narrow 215 - 214 vote.

It now heads to the Senate, where all Democrats are expected to vote in opposition, with several key Republicans having either already said they will not vote in support or remaining noncommittal.

"I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren’t going to explode the debt," Republican Sen. Rand Paul, one of the holdouts, told Fox News Sunday.

He demanded that the bill's $4 trillion increase in the debt limit be removed, maintaining that "the math doesn’t add up."