May 30 (UPI) — President Donald Trump bid multi-billionaire Elon Musk farewell from his role as a senior adviser tasked with shrinking the government through program cuts and worker departures.
Musk, dressed in all black in a T-shirt, jacket, DOGE baseball cap and pants, appeared with Trump in the White House’s Oval Office, 130 days after beginning as a special government employee, including running the Department of Government Efficiency.
“Today, it’s about a man named Elon, and he’s one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced,” Trump told reporters about Musk, who is worth $421.2 billion, according to Forbes. “He stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation, and we appreciate it.”
Then, a video by CNBC’s Joe Kernan and Rick Santelli was shown that praises the Trump administration.
Musk claims to have identified more than $160 billion in federal spending cuts since Trump entered office on Jan. 20. That includes 56,000 employees terminated and 34 taking buyouts. There are plans to dissolve the Department of Education and cut health programs despite Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy‘s goal to Make Amerca Healthy Again. The Department of Defense and Homeland Security aren’t facing as severe cuts.
Musk initially predicted he could cut $2 trillion from the nation’s roughly $6.8 trillion federal budget. Despite the much lower number, Musk said he believes the savings will reach $1 trillion.
“It’s just a lot of work going through the vast expenses of the federal government and just really asking questions,” Trump said.
Musk said the president wants him to still help out.
“Elon is really not leaving,” Trump said. “He’s going to be back and forth. It’s his baby.”
Musk, who personally spent $277 million to bring Trump back to the White House, announced his departure Wednesday on X, saying the DOGE “mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
During the public appearance with Trump, Musk said: “This is not the end, but the beginning. My role as a government employee has to end. It comes with a time limit.”
Musk said he will remain as an informal adviser and make trips to the White House. Plans are for him to maintain an office in the White House.
“The DOGE team is doing an incredible job and will continue to do an incredible job,” he said, noting most of the 100 workers will remain in government. “I look forward to being back in this room. Isn’t it incredible? “
He said loved the “gold in the ceiling” of the Oval Office.
Musk was presented with a special symbolic gold key to the White House.
Musk plans to focus more on his businesses: Tesla, SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup xAI, which now includes X.
Musk told reporters last week that he had worked in Washington, D.C., on his DOGE initiative “seven days a week, or close to seven days a week” during Trump’s first 100 days in office. He frequently traveled on Air Force One with Trump to the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., and recently to the Middle East.
This has meant less attention to his companies, including publicly held Tesla, the company that makes electric vehicles, solar panels/shingles and energy storage devices.
He said his efforts have been far more challenging than expected and DOGE had become “the whipping boy for everything.”
He also became at odds with Trump on Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package going through Congress.
“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 told CBS Sunday Morning. “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both.”
Later Friday Trump was to head to Pittsburgh to praise a partnership between iconic U.S. Steel and its Japanese rival, Nippon Steel.