The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has finally stepped down from his role in Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) following a period of sales drop in his electric vehicle company, Tesla. Even though his role in Trump’s cabinet was a temporary position, Musk is leaving after leading a drive that reduced the size of the United States’ government, resulting in the elimination of thousands of federal jobs.
According to a post on his social media platform X, the billionaire thanked Trump for the privilege to run DOGE. Amid Elon Musk’s decision, the White House began “offboarding” Musk as a special government employee on Wednesday night. The Tesla CEO and SpaceX owner had been designated as a special government employee, allowing him to work a federal job for 130 days each year. He was meant to hit that limit towards the end of May.
“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. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” Elon Musk wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Musk’s departure comes a day after Musk criticised the legislature’s lack of drive for Trump’s agenda. The billionaire said he was disappointed with Trump’s budget bill, which proposes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks and a boost to defence spending, stating that the big, beautiful bill, as Trump calls it, would increase the federal deficit and undermine the work of DOGE.
“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful. But I don’t know if it could be both,” Musk said.
During his tenure at DOGE, an estimated 260,000 out of the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce have experienced job cuts or accepted redundancy deals. Musk, who had clashed in private with some Trump cabinet-level officials, initially pledged to cut at least $2 trillion from the federal government budget, before halving this target, then reducing it to $150bn.
Notably, Elon Musk’s role in Trump’s administration clashed with a significant decline in performance at his electric car company, which saw its sales drop by 13 per cent in the first three months of this year, the largest drop in deliveries in its history. The company’s stock price was also hit by around 45 per cent, but has regained momentum and is only down by 10 per cent. Amid that, Tesla warned investors that the financial decline could continue, stating that changing political sentiment could meaningfully hurt demand for the vehicles.
Demand for Elon Musk’s commitment to Tesla
In late April, Musk announced that he would step back to run his companies again after becoming a lightning rod for criticism of Trump’s efforts to shake up Washington.
“Doge is just becoming the whipping boy for everything. Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it,” Musk said on Tuesday ahead of a SpaceX launch.
Amid that, a group of Tesla shareholders sent a letter to board chair Robyn Denholm on Wednesday calling for guarantees that CEO Elon Musk devote at least 40 hours a week to the company after allegedly spending much of the past year focused on federal politics. The letter was signed by SOC Investment Group, sponsored by a coalition of labour unions, and other small investors that together own about 7.9 million Tesla shares – a fraction of the company’s 3.2 billion outstanding shares.
The group noted that Tesla’s volatility, declining sales, and plummeting global reputation call for serious concerns.
“The current crisis at Tesla puts into sharp focus the long-term problems at the company stemming from the CEO’s absence, which is amplified by a Board that appears largely uninterested and unwilling to act in the best interest of all Tesla shareholders by demanding Mr. Musk’s full-time attention on Tesla,” the letter reads.
In addition, the letter called on Denholm to create a precise long-term and short-term succession plan for management and outline a policy that specifically limits outside board commitments at other public and private companies. It also urged the company’s management to appoint at least a truly independent director with no personal ties to other Board members.
A day before the letter, Elon Musk, in an economic forum in Doha, Qatar, said he was committed to being the leader of Tesla for the next five years. The CEO noted that he would cut back his political donations after spending nearly $300m to back Trump’s presidential campaign and other Republicans last year. Musk told investors last month that the time he allocates to Doge will drop significantly and that he would be allocating far more of his time to Tesla
Months ago, reports circulated that Tesla’s board was searching for a new CEO. However, Denholm, in a post on X, called the report, absolutely stating that the Board is highly confident in Elon Musk’s ability to continue executing on the exciting growth and plans.
