{"id":66886,"date":"2025-05-29T12:26:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T12:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=66886"},"modified":"2025-05-29T12:26:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T12:26:02","slug":"elon-musk-quits-trumps-efficiency-task-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/05\/29\/elon-musk-quits-trumps-efficiency-task-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk Quits Trump\u2019s Efficiency Task Force"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After months of public service aimed at cutting federal expenditures, Elon Musk has officially stepped down from his temporary government role under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO confirmed on Wednesday that his tenure as a Special Government Employee, tasked with reducing bureaucracy through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has come to an end.<\/p>\n

Taking to his social media platform X, Musk expressed gratitude to President Donald Trump for the opportunity but did not shy away from voicing his concerns about recent policy directions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee concludes, I want to express gratitude to President Trump for trusting me with this mission to cut wasteful spending,\u201d Musk wrote. \u201cDOGE remains a long-term project, one that I believe will continue to evolve as a model of efficiency within government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s resignation follows his strong opposition to Trump\u2019s recently passed spending bill, known as the \u201cOne Big, Beautiful Bill Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation, which merges tax cuts with large-scale public expenditures, has drawn criticism for its projected impact on the national deficit-potentially increasing it by up to $4 trillion over the next decade.<\/p>\n

Critics argue the bill undermines the very objectives Musk aimed to achieve through DOGE.<\/p>\n

In a CBS News interview aired Tuesday, Musk said the bill contradicted the principles of fiscal responsibility: \u201cI was disappointed to see the bill pass. It\u2019s not just a spending increase; it undercuts everything the DOGE team has been trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once considered one of Trump\u2019s most vocal allies-both as a public supporter and a significant donor to the 2024 campaign-Musk\u2019s recent statements have signaled a rare divergence from the administration.<\/p>\n

He had been central to efforts to streamline government operations, with DOGE overseeing the downsizing of tens of thousands of federal employees.<\/p>\n

However, Musk said his initiatives met increasing political resistance.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Washington Post from SpaceX\u2019s Starbase facility in Texas, he lamented the role DOGE had come to play in the political crossfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time something went wrong-even if it had nothing to do with us-DOGE took the hit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Musk cited entrenched bureaucracy as a major barrier to meaningful reform. \u201cThe scale of dysfunction in Washington is worse than I imagined. It\u2019s a monumental challenge to implement real change.\u201d<\/p>\n

His departure also comes at a turbulent time for his private ventures. Tesla has seen a decline in profits and become the target of protests linked to Musk\u2019s involvement in government downsizing.<\/p>\n

Several Tesla dealerships have been attacked, and reports of arson involving electric vehicles have surfaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been burning Teslas over this. That\u2019s just insane,\u201d Musk told the Post.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, SpaceX has encountered setbacks of its own. Earlier this week, a prototype Starship exploded over the Indian Ocean during a test flight, dealing a blow to Musk\u2019s long-term vision of Mars colonization.<\/p>\n

Musk, who reportedly spent around $250 million backing Trump\u2019s re-election bid, now says he is stepping away from politics entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m refocusing on my companies,\u201d he said, adding that while DOGE\u2019s mission may endure, it will do so without him at the helm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adenike Lawal   After months of public service aimed at cutting federal expenditures, Elon Musk has officially stepped down from his temporary government role under the Trump administration. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO confirmed on Wednesday that his tenure as a Special Government Employee, tasked with reducing bureaucracy through the Department of Government Efficiency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":66887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[249],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66888,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66886\/revisions\/66888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}