The Tesla owner is currently a special government employee, which has a 130-day limit.
The White House on Wednesday afternoon responded to multiple reports, citing anonymous sources, that Elon Musk could be leaving the Trump administration soon.
Musk himself recently suggested that he will be done with his work in the near future. President Donald Trump told reporters this week that “at some point, he’s going to be going back” to running his companies. Regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk heads, Trump said that “it will end.”
An article published by Politico on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources, said that Trump told some members of his Cabinet and others that Musk will be stepping back from his current role soon.
The Politico report was dismissed by White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a post on social media platform X.
“This ’scoop’ is garbage,” she wrote, referring to the article.
“Elon Musk and President Trump have both *publicly* stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.”
Special government employees have to leave the government after 130 days. In Musk’s case, that means he would be leaving at the end of May.
“I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame,” Musk told Bret Baier of Fox News on March 27.
Meanwhile, Musk suffered a setback during elections on Tuesday in Wisconsin, where voters rejected a state Supreme Court candidate he had backed.
At the same time, Tesla’s auto sales dropped 13 percent year over year in the first quarter of this year, the company said on Wednesday, while the company’s stock has slid by more than 35 percent since the start of 2025.
The White House has not disclosed any clear timeline for closing down DOGE. The government cost-cutting organization was never intended to become a permanent fixture in Washington. It was originally intended to operate until July 4, 2026.
