As the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk is starting the process of leaving his position.
On Wednesday evening, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla wrote on X that his tenure as a special federal employee was nearing to an end and thanked President Donald Trump for the chance to reduce unnecessary spending.
“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” Musk stated in his tweet. Musk’s post is true, according to the White House, and offboarding will start on Wednesday evening.
Since January 20, when Trump signed an executive order creating the office, Musk has served as DOGE’s public face.
Since then, DOGE has torn through federal government departments in an effort to find and stop government fraud, corruption, and excessive spending.
He was formally employed as a “special government employee,” a position established by Congress in 1962 that permits the legislative or executive branches to engage temporary workers for particular, short-term projects.
According to data from the Office of Government Ethics, special government employees are allowed to work for the federal government for “no more than 130 days in a 365-day period,” On May 30, Musk’s 130-day period, which had started on Inauguration Day, was scheduled to expire.
In order to reduce and simplify the federal government, DOGE was created as a temporary cross-departmental body.
The Trump presidential order will dissolve the group itself on July 4, 2026.
Both Trump and Musk had previously hinted that Musk’s position would be temporary and terminate in the spring.
In remarks to reporters on March 31, Trump alluded to Musk’s departure when asked if he wanted Musk to stay in a government position for more than the allotted 130 days.
“I think he’s amazing. But I also think he’s got a big company to run,” Trump stated in March. “And so at some point he’s going to be going back.”
“I’d keep him as long as I can keep him,” Trump stated. “He’s a very talented guy. You know, I love very smart people. He’s very smart. And he’s done a good job,” the president added. “DOGE is, we’ve found numbers that nobody can even believe.”
More recently, Musk stated that he will stand back from his role as DOGE’s head on an April 22 Tesla earnings call.
“I think starting probably in next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Musk stated. “I’ll have to continue doing it for, I think, the remainder of the president’s term just to make sure the waste and fraud that we stopped does not come roaring back, which it will do if it has the chance. So I think I’ll continue to spend, you know, a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it is useful.”
“But starting next month,” he continued, “I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done.”
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Democrats and activists have protested against the tech magnate and his businesses, including attempting to depress Tesla stock, in response to Musk’s cooperation with DOGE.
According to a court filing in March that provided more insight into the inner workings of the office, Musk has been the public face of DOGE for months, but he is not an employee of the US DOGE Service and does not report to the acting DOGE chief.
DOGE interim administrator Amy Gleason stated in a declaration that was part of a court document, “Elon Musk does not work at USDS. I do not report to him, and he does not report to me. To my knowledge, he is a Senior Advisor to the White House.”
