Elon Musk says he is leaving Trump administration

Billionaire Elon Musk has said his time leading President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting task force is coming “to an end”.

Musk has helped lead the Department of Government Efficiency – known as Doge – since its inception this year.

He was designated as a “special government employee” – which allows him to work a government job for 130 days each year. Measured from Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, he would hit that limit towards the end of May.

Musk thanked Trump for the role in a post on X and said he believed the cost-cutting agency would become a “way of life throughout government”.

“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote on X.

He added the agency will “only strengthen over time”.

A White House official told news outlet Semafor that Musk’s “offboarding” as a special government employee would begin on Wednesday night.

Musk’s exit comes after he criticised Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill, which includes multi-trillion dollar tax breaks and a pledge to increase defence spending.