“My Time Comes To An End’: Elon Musk Steps Down From Donald Trump Administration
Space and technology tycoon Elon Musk revealed that his time as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency has run out.
New Delhi:
Space and technology tycoon Elon Musk revealed that his stint as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has concluded, thanking US President for the “opportunity to cut wasteful spending.“
Musk stated that the mission of DOGE will get better with time to become a “way of life” at the government.
His exit follows a day after Musk’s first ever criticism of Trump, when he stated that the President’s signature “big, beautiful” spending bill adds to budget deficit and dilutes the DOGE team’s efforts. “A bill can be big, or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion,” Musk stated.
Musk was the biggest giver to Trump’s 2024 election campaign, appearing in his pre-poll outings and then stayed strongly by his side as the Republican took office. Trump, meanwhile, publicly praised Musk during his victory speech, grinning as he said “a star is born”.
While the DOGE department began working at a frantic rate, Musk set out to recruit “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries” to labor more than 80 hours per week on drab cost-cutting assignments. Tens of thousands of individuals were taken off the payroll and a number of departments were cut back or eliminated despite the Tesla leader clashing with other high-ranking Trump administrators.
But by late April, Musk started pulling back after interviews where he said DOGE had become a “whipping boy” for dissatisfaction with the administration. He also admitted that he did not achieve all his goals with DOGE.
A US District court also ordered that Musk will have to contend with a lawsuit regarding exercising illegal authority as DOGE head, among a host of cases he and DOGE have been defending with the aim of preventing their access to agency systems and records storing massive stores of Americans’ financial and personal data.
His attention also diverted towards his companies, as Tesla dealerships became victims of arson and its stock prices declined, and SpaceX faced setbacks with failures in the missions. The most recent one was on Wednesday when the Starship blew up over the Indian Ocean during its ninth test flight. The two-hour-long Saturday downtime of social media site X prompted the South Africa-born entrepreneur to comment, “As shown by the X uptime problems this week, significant operational changes must be implemented.”
