Elon Musk to leave White House role ‘soon’ according to several US media outlets

The richest person in the world and Donald Trump’s right-hand man, tech oligarch Elon Musk, will leave his role in the White House as an advisor, partner in crime, and overseer of spending and personnel cuts in the United States administration “soon,” according to several U.S. media outlets, who reported Trump himself had told several of his collaborators this on Wednesday. The news immediately prompted a surge in shares of Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer of which Musk is CEO.

When questioned by reporters, the White House simply stated that Musk “will leave when DOGE [the Department of Government Efficiency, the agency created by Trump and Musk to cut staff and spending and dismantle government agencies] has completed its work.”

The information comes at a time when the billionaire is going through a rough patch and appears to be beginning to weigh on Trump and his Republican administration.

Tesla has posted more than disappointing first-quarter results, according to data released Wednesday by the company, which has been dragged down, among other things, by the unpopularity of its CEO and the polarization he generates. Its vehicles have been the target of boycotts and protests by citizen groups opposed to Trump. And the oligarch’s attempts to use checkbook pressure to support the Trumpist candidate in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court elections have backfired: the progressive candidate clearly won in a ballot that had been presented as a referendum on Musk and his influence on U.S. politics.

According to the online publication Politico, which was the first to report the news, the departure of the businessman and Trump activist will be only relative, as although he plans to fully dedicate himself to his companies he will maintain a supporting role in White House and Trump circles.

ABC News, for its part, quotes White House sources as saying that Musk’s supporters in the presidential office reject the idea that the tech magnate has been pushed out. “Trump remains pleased with what Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team have done with their cost-cutting across the government, despite the backlash publicly and in the courts,” the sources told this outlet.

Trump had tasked the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX with implementing government cuts and dismantling several departments, including the development aid agency (USAID) and the Department of Education. He was to carry out this task while heading the DOGE. Musk is performing these duties as a special government employee, a status that initially only allows him to serve for a maximum of 130 days.

It’s unclear when that deadline expires, as the exact timing when Musk assumed the reins of DOGE is unknown. If it was around January 20 — the date Trump was inaugurated president — those 130 days would be up by the end of May.

According to Politico, both Trump and Musk have decided in recent days that the billionaire will soon return to his leadership roles at his companies. The president and the oligarch had recently indicated that the world’s richest man planned to step down from his role at the helm of DOGE.

On Monday, Trump told reporters: “At some point Elon’s going to want to go back to his company. He wants to. I’d keep him as long as I could keep him.” Musk, for his part, had stated in an interview with the conservative television channel Fox News that he was confident that by the end of his 130 days as a special government employee, he would have achieved his goal of cutting $1 trillion in government spending. In Wisconsin, he acknowledged that his political activism was hurting Tesla.

These positions represent a shift from just a month ago, Politico notes. Back then, White House officials claimed Musk was there “to stay” and Trump would find a way to keep him on as an advisor after the 130 days were up.

Immediately after the Politico article was published, Tesla shares, which had initially fallen 2% due to the company’s poor first-quarter results, reversed course and rose 3%. Shares of other companies, including firms with major government contracts, also rose.

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