By The Epoch Times | Created at 2025-04-02 20:56:11 | Updated at 2025-04-03 18:18:59
21 hours ago
The Tesla owner is currently a special government employee, which has a 130-day limit.
The White House on Wednesday afternoon responded to multiple reports, citing anonymous sources, that Elon Musk could be leaving the Trump administration soon.
Musk himself recently suggested that he will be done with his work in the near future. President Donald Trump told reporters this week that “at some point, he’s going to be going back” to running his companies. Regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk heads, Trump said that “it will end.”
An article published by Politico on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources, said that Trump told some members of his Cabinet and others that Musk will be stepping back from his current role soon.
The Politico report was dismissed by White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a post on social media platform X.
“This ’scoop' is garbage,” she wrote, referring to the article.
“Elon Musk and President Trump have both *publicly* stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.”
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Special government employees have to leave the government after 130 days. In Musk’s case, that means he would be leaving at the end of May.
“I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame,” Musk told Bret Baier of Fox News on March 27.
Meanwhile, Musk suffered a setback during elections on Tuesday in Wisconsin, where voters rejected a state Supreme Court candidate he had backed.
At the same time, Tesla’s auto sales dropped 13 percent year over year in the first quarter of this year, the company said on Wednesday, while the company’s stock has slid by more than 35 percent since the start of 2025.
The White House has not disclosed any clear timeline for closing down DOGE. The government cost-cutting organization was never intended to become a permanent fixture in Washington. It was originally intended to operate until July 4, 2026.
Created by Trump via an executive order in January, DOGE was set up to combat what it terms as fraud, waste, and abuse, although the initiative has faced some legal setbacks in the meantime. In a separate case, two judges in late March blocked DOGE’s access to information from the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Education Department, and the Department of the Treasury.
“We think probably over the next two or three months, we’ll be pretty much satisfied with the people that are working hard and want to be members of the administration,” Trump said last week, referring to DOGE’s efforts.
Musk also has not provided a date for when he will leave the administration, and it is unclear how the administration is tracking Musk’s time. On May 30, it will be 130 days since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said, “I’d keep him as long as I could keep him,” adding that Musk is “a very talented guy.”
“I think he’s amazing, but I also think he’s got a big company to run. And so, at some point, he’s going to be going back.”
In comments on Sunday, Musk noted that his work in the Trump administration is hurting Tesla’s stock and said that protests and vandalism against Tesla properties and cars are partially to blame. However, he said that in the long term, he believes the electric vehicle maker’s shares will again rise and that the recent dip is an aberration.
The Epoch Times contacted the White House for additional comment on Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
