Elon Musk is leaving DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. The businessman announced his decision on X.
According to Musk, the department itself will continue to exist. Musk will now devote more time to his electric car company, Tesla.
Elon Musk confirmed his decision to resign as a special government employee and head of DOGE, tasked with optimizing the federal budget. By law, his term could not exceed 130 days and expired on May 30.
In his post on X on May 29, Musk thanked U.S. President Donald Trump 'for the opportunity to cut unnecessary expenses.' According to Reuters, the process of the businessman’s resignation began as early as Thursday night.
The cryptocurrency $DOGE after which the department is named did not react to the news.
In an interview with the Washington Post on May 27, Musk acknowledged that the level of bureaucracy he encountered was much worse than he expected. He described his work in the position as a 'hard struggle' to improve government operations.
In his opinion, some government initiatives undermine his work. In a conversation with CBS, he criticized the tax relief package approved by the House of Representatives, stating that it would only increase the budget deficit and undermine the results of DOGE.
Within DOGE, project representatives claim they managed to save $175 billion of taxpayers' money. This result was achieved, in part, by reducing 12% of government staff.
At the same time, the department's team was forced to revise its original goal. They planned to cut the federal budget by $2 trillion, but later lowered the bar to $150 billion.
Meanwhile, the federal court has allowed the lawsuit against Musk and DOGE, filed by 14 states, to proceed. The lawsuit claims that the DOGE team illegally accessed government databases, fired employees, and terminated contracts in federal agencies, violating the Constitution.
In an interview with Ars Technica on May 28, Musk admitted that he had spent too much time on politics, which critics believe negatively affected the performance of his company, Tesla.
