Musk confirms he will resign as the White House's cost-cutting director, admitting that trying to cut federal jobs and programs has been a "tough battle."
According to legal regulations, Musk, as a special government employee leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), can only serve for a maximum of 130 days, which will end on May 30.
Musk confirmed his departure in a post on the X platform on May 29, thanking President Trump for the "opportunity to reduce wasteful spending." Reuters reported that a White House official stated that his "departure process will begin tonight."
In an interview with The Washington Post on May 27, Musk stated that the situation within the federal bureaucracy is "much worse than he expected," adding, "Improving the situation in Washington is indeed a tough battle, and that is the understatement of the year."
In a separate interview with CBS, Musk criticized the multi-trillion dollar tax cut plan passed by House Republicans on May 22, claiming it would increase the budget deficit and undermine the work DOGE is undertaking.
The DOGE, named after cryptocurrency, claims to have saved taxpayers $175 billion since Trump returned to the White House on January 20, but this figure has been strongly questioned by several news outlets, which reported that the data is exaggerated, contains multiple errors, and is inaccurate.
The claimed savings amount to only 8.5% of Musk's initial plan to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, which he later revised down to $150 billion.
According to Reuters, DOGE has reduced nearly 12% of its workforce, or 260,000 out of 2.3 million federal employees, through layoffs, buyouts, and early retirement plans.
Despite facing numerous criticisms, Musk stated on the X platform that DOGE's mission "will continue to strengthen over time, as it will become a way of life in government operations."
At the same time, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit accusing Musk and DOGE of illegally interfering with government operations to proceed.
The lawsuit, filed by 14 states, accuses Musk and DOGE of violating the Constitution by illegally accessing government data systems, firing federal employees, and canceling federal agency contracts.
In an interview with Ars Technica on May 28, Tesla CEO Musk admitted that he has spent "too much time" on political affairs, a point some critics have suggested may have affected Tesla's performance.
"I may have indeed spent too much time on political affairs," Musk said. However, he added that his time spent on DOGE has not been as much as the public generally believes, blaming media reports for exaggerating his level of involvement. "I haven't left these companies. It's just that my relative time allocation to government affairs may have been a bit high, and I have significantly reduced my involvement in that area in recent weeks."
When Musk announced in Tesla's first-quarter earnings report that he would significantly reduce the time spent on DOGE in May, Tesla (TSLA) stock still rose over 5% in after-hours trading, despite the company reporting an 80% drop in net profit.
As of March 31, Tesla still holds 11,509 bitcoins (BTC), with a current market value of approximately $1.24 billion.
Tesla's stock is down 5.9% year-to-date, partly due to Musk shifting his focus away from the company and a significant decline in Tesla's first-quarter sales.
However, this decline is consistent with other tech giants, including Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOG), which also performed poorly in 2025.
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Original article: “Musk gives up DOGE-related position, calls the work a 'tough battle'”
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