Musk’s Role With Trump Is Ending But His Influence to Remain (1)

Elon Musk is expected to step back from his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency once his 130-day period as a temporary adviser to President Donald Trump has lapsed, but the billionaire will still wield significant influence over the federal cost-cutting effort and remain a Trump confidant after his formal departure, according to people familiar with the matter.

Musk, the world’s richest person, is a special government employee, a classification for temporary federal hires who are only supposed to work 130 days out of the year in their roles. If those days are counted consecutively from Trump’s inauguration, Musk’s tenure would be on track to end on May 30.

A formal date hasn’t been set and the White House counsel’s office is in charge of determining when Musk has worked his 130 days, the people said, who requested anonymity to discuss deliberations that aren’t public.

“I think Elon’s great, but he also has a company to run, or a number of companies to run,” Trump told reporters Thursday aboard Air Force One, adding that he believed Musk would likely depart in a “few months.”

“We’re in no rush, but there will be a point in which time Elon’s going to have to leave,” he added.

DOGE, the federal entity that has led a swift and often tumultuous effort to slash the federal budget and downsize the government workforce, is here to stay, the people said. DOGE workers will continue to hold their posts in agencies as they seek further cost and personnel cuts, the people said.

Elon Musk, left, and Donald Trump

Photographer: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg

Musk has faced a spate of political and business losses in recent days. He morphed from a benefactor into an apparent liability for a Republican-backed candidate in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election. And Tesla Inc., the electric-vehicle maker he leads, has seen its sales drop in part because of his political activities.

One Trump adviser cautioned that the president isn’t concerned about what specific title Musk holds and it’s likely the billionaire, who is also the chief executive officer of SpaceX, will continue to be a frequent presence in the West Wing.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump himself has publicly mused about the end of Musk’s federal cutting efforts. The president last week said he expects to be “satisfied” with DOGE’s cuts in the coming month or two. The president has also said DOGE’s overhauls aren’t “necessarily a very popular thing to do,” an acknowledgment of the political risk associated with the effort.

Many top Trump aides and cabinet members, as well as Republican lawmakers, are tired of Musk’s penchant for ignoring procedures that have led to quick-moving efforts to gut their agencies and key programs for Americans, sometimes without their advanced knowledge, the people said.

But Musk plays two crucial roles, the people said. He has provided a distraction — and sometimes serves as an avatar — for some of Trump’s controversial actions. And the Trump political operation is still very reliant on the billionaire’s money. Musk was Trump’s largest contributor in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump aides are cautious not to alienate or criticize Musk because they want to keep him in the fold as a donor for the 2026 midterm elections, the people said. That’s led Trump’s inner circle to appear publicly supportive of DOGE and Musk even if they are annoyed by him, they said.

Vice President JD Vance, who will lead the Republican National Committee’s fundraising efforts for the 2026 elections, on Thursday downplayed any notion that Musk is leaving the administration, telling Fox News that Musk’s work was slated “to take about six months, and that’s what Elon signed up for.”

“But of course, he’s going to continue to be an adviser. And by the way, the work of DOGE is not even close to done. The work of Elon is not even close to done,” Vance said.

Political Blowback

The discussion about Musk’s future is coming after one of his biggest political missteps since Trump took office in January — and as his most visible business faces increasing strain.

Brad Schimel, the Musk-backed candidate in a Wisconsin judicial race, was soundly defeated after the billionaire played a prominent role in the election, appearing at rallies and giving $1 million checks to supporters.

Tesla this week also reported the weakest sales figures in nearly three years, a quarter that coincided with its CEO spending much of his time in Washington focusing on DOGE work.

“It’s a wake-up call. Clearly he has become a rallying point for the opposition. We won the voter ID referendum by 25 points, but his Supreme Court candidate lost his race. So what does that tell you about his influence?” said Steve Bannon, a former chief strategist to Trump, referring to a conservative-backed Wisconsin ballot initiative to require identification to vote.

Musk, in a Fox News interview last week, acknowledged his 130-day limit. He said he believes that DOGE would cut $1 trillion in that time frame, an ambitious goal that would require slashing more than half of the $1.8 trillion the US spent on nondefense discretionary programs in 2024.

Some Musk employees who had been tapped to join the administration have recently left their posts.

Christopher Stanley, who leads cybersecurity at the social-media platform X and SpaceX, joined the administration as a temporary expert at the Office of Personnel Management and was briefly tapped for the board of Fannie Mae in March before resigning a day later.

Another Musk employee, Ryan Riedel, was named chief information officer at the Department of Energy but returned to his job at SpaceX just weeks after the appointment, according to a report by MeriTalk.

(Updates to add Trump comments in paragraphs 4 and 5.)

--With assistance from Skylar Woodhouse, Joshua Green, Sophie Alexander, Gregory Korte and Annmarie Hordern.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Nancy Cook in Washington at ncook40@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Laura Davison at ldavison4@bloomberg.net

Tim Annett

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