After months of trying to trim government fat and take on Washington’s notorious red tape, Elon Musk has officially stepped down from his role at the Department of Government Efficiency—also known, with a wink to the crypto crowd, as DOGE.
Musk confirmed the end of his temporary post in a May 29 announcement on X, where he thanked former President Donald Trump for the opportunity to tackle government overspending. “It’s been an uphill battle,” Musk admitted, referencing both the scope of the job and the entrenched systems he was tasked with reforming. The billionaire entrepreneur’s tenure as a Special Government Employee was always meant to be short-lived—capped at 130 days by law—but it became clear that the mission was more complicated than expected.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Musk didn’t sugarcoat the experience. “The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I anticipated,” he said, noting that trying to spark real change in Washington, D.C. was “an uphill battle, to say the least.”
While DOGE claimed to have saved taxpayers an impressive $175 billion since Trump returned to office on Jan. 20, that figure has been met with skepticism. Critics, including several media outlets, allege that the savings were exaggerated, riddled with errors, or based on questionable assumptions. The number also fell short of Musk’s original target—he initially aimed to cut $2 trillion in government spending but later revised the goal to $150 billion.
DOGE’s reported accomplishments include reducing the federal workforce by approximately 260,000 positions, around 12% of the total 2.3 million employees, through a mix of layoffs, early retirements, and voluntary buyouts, according to Reuters.
Despite the controversy and limitations, Musk maintained optimism in his farewell remarks, stating that the spirit of DOGE “will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
But it wasn’t all policy and spreadsheets. Musk’s high-profile role also attracted legal scrutiny. A lawsuit filed by 14 states is moving forward, accusing him and the DOGE initiative of overstepping legal boundaries. The plaintiffs allege Musk improperly accessed government data systems and made sweeping decisions—such as terminations and contract cancellations—without proper authority, potentially violating constitutional protections.
In a May 28 interview with Ars Technica, Musk reflected on his political involvement, acknowledging that it may have been too much. “I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics,” he said. However, he pushed back on media narratives suggesting that DOGE consumed most of his time, clarifying that the coverage exaggerated his day-to-day involvement.
“It’s not like I left Tesla,” Musk said. “It was just a question of relative time allocation. I’ve since scaled that back significantly.”
Investors seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. When Musk signaled in Tesla’s Q1 earnings report that he’d be stepping back from DOGE responsibilities, the company’s stock (TSLA) surged over 5% in after-hours trading—even though it had just reported an 80% plunge in net income.
Tesla’s numbers continue to reflect a challenging 2025. As of March 31, the EV giant held 11,509 Bitcoin, valued at around $1.24 billion at current prices. Still, Tesla shares are down nearly 6% year-to-date, mirroring trends seen across Big Tech names like Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, and Google.
With Musk now turning his full attention back to Tesla, SpaceX, and his other ventures—including the newly announced X Money payments system—the DOGE chapter may be closing, but the debate around tech CEOs in politics is likely far from over.
