Musk Leaves US Government Role After Clash Over Trump Bill

Elon Musk displays a "DOGE" shirt while walking on the White House South Lawn after arriving by Marine One in Washington, DC, March 9, 2025.

Billionaire Elon Musk announced on Wednesday that he is stepping down from his role in the US government aimed at reducing federal spending, following a rare public disagreement with President Donald Trump over the president’s signature spending bill.

“As my term as a Special Government Employee concludes, I thank President Trump for the opportunity to tackle wasteful spending,” Musk wrote on his social media platform, X. “The DOGE mission will only grow stronger as it becomes embedded throughout government.”

The South African-born tech entrepreneur criticized Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” — a sweeping tax relief and spending package passed by the House last week and now awaiting Senate approval. Musk argued the bill would increase the federal deficit and undermine the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has cut tens of thousands of government jobs.

“I was disappointed to see a massive spending bill that increases the deficit rather than reducing it, undermining the efforts of the DOGE team,” Musk said in a recent interview.

Trump’s bill forms the core of his domestic agenda but faces criticism for potentially devastating healthcare and expanding the deficit by up to $4 trillion over ten years. “A bill can be big, or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both,” Musk added.

The White House downplayed the apparent disagreement, with Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller tweeting that the bill “is NOT an annual budget bill,” and any DOGE-related cuts would require a separate legislative effort.

Musk’s remarks marked an uncommon break with Trump, whom he supported as the largest donor in the 2024 election campaign.

Trump had appointed Musk to lead DOGE, but after an intense initial period, Musk stepped back in late April to focus on his businesses, Tesla and SpaceX. Musk said that DOGE had become a “whipping boy” for criticism unrelated to its work.

“Whenever something went wrong anywhere, we got blamed, even if we had nothing to do with it,” he said.

Musk cited entrenched bureaucracy as a major hurdle, adding, “The federal bureaucracy is much worse than I realized. It’s an uphill battle to improve things in DC.”

Despite removing tens of thousands from the payroll and shuttering several departments, Musk acknowledged he didn’t meet all his objectives. Meanwhile, protests against government cuts targeted Tesla dealerships, with some vehicles set on fire, damaging the company’s profits.

“People were burning Teslas. Why would you do that? That’s really uncool,” Musk commented.

Musk has also been focused on SpaceX, despite recent setbacks, including the recent explosion of the Starship prototype over the Indian Ocean.

Last week, Musk announced plans to scale back political spending after investing roughly $250 million backing Trump’s campaign.