Trump gives Musk an Oval Office farewell
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump gave Elon Musk a farewell from the Oval Office on Friday, praising him as an innovator during a joint news conference after Musk said this week that he would step away from his role as Trump’s chief cost-cutter.
Trump, who gave Musk a golden key emblazoned with the White House insignia, said the world’s richest man would remain an adviser.
Reading from prepared remarks, the president called Musk “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced” and praised his work finding what Trump said was “waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal budget.
Musk brushed off questions about a new report in the New York Times about his use of drugs on the campaign trail. But he said he hoped to continue to be a “friend and adviser to the president” and expressed confidence that the cost-cutting effort he started – called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short – would continue working and would eventually find the $1 trillion in savings he had promised.
“The DOGE team will only grow stronger over time,” he said.
While the event was billed as a send-off for Musk, it quickly turned into a largely solo news conference from Trump. The president fielded a range of questions, including whether he has marital advice for President Emmanuel Macron of France after a video emerged that appeared to show his wife shoving him in the face. (He did not have any advice.) Trump was also asked whether he would consider pardoning Sean “Diddy” Combs. (He said he has not given it much thought.)
Musk’s departure comes as his influence inside the Trump administration appears to be waning. He has faced friction with shareholders in his companies, which have struggled during his White House stint, and with the president, with whom he has clashed on tariffs and budget issues.
On Friday, however, neither Musk nor Trump mentioned their policy differences and took pains to laud each other.
Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX, said he was leaving because he has served 130 days in the administration, the legal limit for “special government employees.”
“I just want to thank Elon for his time” as a “special government employee,” Trump said. “Can you imagine? We call him an employee, but it’s a special government employee – for coming and helping us, and he really has changed the mindset of a lot of people.”
Musk, in turn, said he would remain a friend and adviser to the president, heaping praise on him.
“The Oval Office finally has the majesty that it deserves, thanks to the president,” he said, marveling at the gold that now adorns the office.
Musk enmeshed himself in Trump’s inner circle after he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help Trump get elected. The president gave him wide latitude to slash government programs from his perch leading the DOGE effort, and he became a constant presence at Trump’s side, traveling with him on Air Force One, sitting in on meetings with foreign leaders and participating in joint interviews.
But Musk also developed contentious relationships with members of Trump’s Cabinet and other senior White House advisers. He sparred with Cabinet officials over spending and personnel decisions and instilled fear throughout Washington because of his willingness to use X to attack his critics. Musk also angered officials, including Trump, when he sought to receive a sensitive briefing on China at the Pentagon, which the president only learned about from a New York Times report.
Musk has said he is departing Washington discouraged by the task of overhauling the government as he promised to do. He never came close to achieving his goal of cutting $1 trillion from the federal budget.
Musk’s DOGE team has repeatedly inflated its cost-saving efforts, but even so, the effect of the mass layoffs and program cuts has been deep. Some departments and programs have been almost entirely dismantled.
In recent weeks, Musk put distance between himself and Trump on some key issues. He complained about Trump’s tariffs on all major trade partners, and this week, he said he was “disappointed” by the domestic policy bill that the president championed. He argued the massive bill would increase the budget deficit, putting him at odds with the president and his senior advisers.
Musk has said he will now devote more time to his private companies, including SpaceX and Tesla.
“I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics,” Musk said in an interview this week with Ars Technica, a tech news outlet.
But Musk is not fully leaving Trump’s orbit. He has told Trump’s advisers this year that he would give $100 million to political groups controlled by the president’s team before the 2026 midterms. As of this week, the money hasn’t come in yet, according to people familiar with the matter.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.