In a post on his social media platform X, the world’s richest man thanked Trump for the opportunity to help run the Department of Government Efficiency, known as Doge.
The White House began “offboarding” Musk as a special government employee on Wednesday night, the BBC understands.
His role was temporary and his exit is not unexpected, but it comes a day after Musk criticised the legislative centrepiece of Trump’s agenda. Measured from Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, he would hit that limit towards the end of May.
But his departure comes a day after he said he was “disappointed” with Trump’s budget bill, which proposes multi-trillion dollar tax breaks and a boost to defence spending.
The SpaceX and Tesla boss said in an interview with BBC’s US partner CBS that the “big, beautiful bill”, as Trump calls it, would increase the federal deficit.
Musk also said he thought it “undermines the work” of Doge.
“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful,” Musk said. “But I don’t know if it could be both.”
