The richest man in the world has been in the Trump administration for four months, in full support of the U.S. president's second win. However, a recent lapse in judgment left Elon Musk with no choice but to end his term.
Why Did Elon Musk Decide to Leave the Trump Administration?
First of all, Elon's role as part of the "special government employee" was temporary, but that doesn't mean his exit was expected this soon. As it so happens, Elon's departure comes a day after he criticized Trump's agenda.
The Trump "agenda" in question pertains to the rather costly government budget Trump proposed.
Musk raised concerns about President Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending cuts package, saying the truth behind the works of DOGE in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning.
"I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk said, "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both."
For the uninformed, behind closed doors, Musk clashed with Trump officials after initially pledging to cut "at least $2 trillion" from the federal government budget before halving its target, reducing it to $150 billion.
Amid Musk's DOGE efforts, speaker Mike Johnson claimed that House Republicans are "eager and ready" to formalize spending cuts according to DOGE's findings, as soon as Trump's team makes the official request to Congress.
What is Doge, and Why Did Trump Implement It?
See, the tech billionaire was granted a special government employee status to lead DOGE, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency.
As the "special" position implies, it's not an official government department, but a venture that Musk dove into to oversee major cuts to the federal workforce that would reduce federal spending.
The newly passed budget bill was not the first time Musk clashed with Trump.
In late April, Musk voiced out concerns on how Doge became "the whipping boy for everything", as he told the Washington Post, "Something bad would happen anywhere and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it."
Many Trump supporters and allies found the existence of DOGE concerning, even more so when an estimated 260,000 out of 2.3 million federal civilian workforce had been cut off from their jobs in the process (121,000 federal workers were laid off in Trump's first 100 days).
The rapid-fire approach to cutting on federal workforce, including staff from the US nuclear programme, led some federal judges to block the mass firings and order terminated employees to be reinstated.
Given the vague nature of DOGE's inner workings, the special government post's scope of its efforts remains unclear even as Musk departs from it.
Despite Musk stepping down from his position, the Trump administration still plans on keeping DOGE running as Musk returns full-time to focus on his companies, SpaceX and Tesla.
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