KDRTV NEWS – USA: Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has officially departed from the Trump administration, ending a controversial 130-day stint as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). While Musk’s term was marked by audacious promises to slash federal spending by $2 trillion, internal White House sources say he leaves with just a fraction $175 billion of those savings achieved, a figure yet to be independently verified.
A White House official confirmed late Wednesday that Musk’s “off-boarding will begin tonight,” closing the chapter on a tenure filled with clashes, firings, and firestorms. Musk announced his exit on X (formerly Twitter), thanking President Trump without speaking to him directly before the decision.
His sudden departure follows his public criticism of the Republican-backed tax and budget bill, which he called a “massive spending mistake” that jeopardized DOGE’s work. The comment reportedly infuriated senior White House officials and led to emergency calls to Congressional Republicans to reaffirm Trump’s backing.
Musk’s time in government was anything but conventional. From wielding a red chainsaw at CPAC to threatening mass layoffs, he embodied a radical shake-up ethos. Yet, he faced increasing resistance from cabinet secretaries and legal pushback from courts, which sometimes reversed DOGE-imposed agency shutdowns. The initiative ultimately shed 260,000 federal workers – 12% of the civilian workforce – but often at the cost of critical staff and operations.
Despite personal ties to Trump and a $300 million contribution to GOP campaigns, Musk now signals a pullback from politics. “I think I’ve done enough,” he remarked at a recent economic forum.
The DOGE mission, Trump allies say, will press on. But Musk’s exit marks the unraveling of an ambitious experiment to “chainsaw” bureaucracy – one that couldn’t match its rhetoric with lasting results.
