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Elon Musk listens as reporters ask U.S. President Donald Trump and South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa questions during a press availability in the Oval Office at the White House on May 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
By Kaanita Iyer and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN
(CNN) — Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who was granted special government employee status to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, said Wednesday evening that his time in the Trump administration has come “to an end.”
During his time helming DOGE, Musk oversaw major cuts to the federal workforce as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce federal spending.
“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 said in a post on X, the social media platform he owns. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
CNN has previously reported that DOGE is poised to continue its work even as Musk steps back, with staffers to remain in place, embedded across federal agencies, for months or years to come.
Musk, who was limited to working 130 days as a special government employee, will begin the offboarding process, which essentially includes paper work, on Wednesday night, a White House official said.
In recent weeks, Musk had begun stepping back from full-time government work to focus on his companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, which have struggled in part as a result of Musk’s alliance with the Trump administration.
Musk’s post comes after he raised concerns about President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package, saying in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” that he believes it would raise the US budget deficit and undercut efforts by DOGE.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” he said in the interview. “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both.”
The president’s “big, beautiful bill” includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts and a big boost to the US military and to national security spending – largely paid for by overhauls to federal health and nutrition programs and cuts to energy programs. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would pile another $3.8 trillion to the deficit.
Trump on Wednesday brushed off Musk’s comments that the bill did not contain enough cuts, saying he expected more changes to the legislation as it goes through the Senate. The president also said he’s not happy with every part of the bill and that there will be negotiations on it.
Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday also signaled that House Republicans are “eager and ready” to formalize spending cuts based on DOGE’s findings as soon as Trump’s team makes the official request to Congress.
Under Musk’s leadership over the first four months of the Trump administration, DOGE has upended the federal government. At least 121,000 federal workers were laid off or targeted for layoffs in Trump’s first 100 days, and thousands more took buyout offers. Federal grants and programs have been slashed, and then at times reinstated after court challenges.
The Trump administration has been vague about the size of DOGE and the scope of its efforts after Musk departs.
CNN also reported Wednesday that Katie Miller, a top adviser and spokesperson for DOGE, has left her position and is now working with Musk, according to three sources familiar with the matter. She did not respond to a request for comment sent to her White House email, which still appeared to be functioning. A separate White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As Musk steps back from the Trump administration, he announced last week that he plans to spend “a lot less” money on politics in the future, but it’s still not clear whether the remarks signal any change in his pledge to commit $100 million into political groups controlled by the president. Musk previously spent more than $290 million to help get Trump and GOP congressional candidates elected in November. Musk-linked groups also shelled out more than $20 million on a Wisconsin Supreme Court race earlier this year that his preferred candidate ultimately lost.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Hadas Gold, Shania Shelton, Eric Bradner, Annie Grayer, Phil Mattingly and Tami Luhby contributed to this report.
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