When Elon Musk last appeared with President Donald Trump to take questions from reporters, he was on top of the world.
A month into Trump’s second term, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was ripping through Washington in a largely unchecked mission to root out waste, fraud and abuse and hobble the bureaucracy. Musk was the government’s chainsaw-wielding “tech support,” and Trump and his Cabinet appeared to adore him for it.
When Musk returned to the Oval on Friday, wrapping his time as a “special government employee,” the political, reputational and personal fortunes of the world’s richest man had changed dramatically.
But for nearly an hour, he once again played favored son, accepting praise from the president, jousting with the media and touting his achievements. His criticisms of Trump’s “big beautiful bill” didn’t come up — either by Trump or the selected reporters in the room. Tesla’s decrying of the legislation for gutting clean energy tax cuts was overlooked. Congress’ unwillingness to codify many of his most significant cuts was unmentioned.
“Elon has worked tirelessly to lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations,” Trump said of Musk.
Trump presented Musk with a golden key, which the president said he reserves for very special people. “Elon’s really not leaving,” the president added. “He’s gonna be back and forth I think, I have a feeling, [DOGE is] his baby.”
After four months in Washington, Musk’s “baby” has slashed just a fraction of the federal spending he once projected, and the courts have stymied many of the attempted workforce reductions. Musk has clashed, publicly and privately, with Cabinet secretaries and other top Trump advisers. And as Democrats centered the billionaire in their messaging, his favorability plummeted, and Republicans feared he had become a liability.
Musk began to fade from view.
Then, on Tuesday, CBS News aired a clip of Musk criticizing Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” saying he was “disappointed” that Trump’s landmark legislation — for which the president personally muscledGOP defectors into submission to pass the House — would undermine DOGE’s spending cuts. It marked a stunning criticism by a senior aide on a bill central to the president’s agenda. On Wednesday, Musk confirmed that his time as a “special government employee” was coming to a close. And on Friday morning, The New York Times alleged Musk had used illicit drugs at the same time he was campaigning and working with Trump.
None of that came up in the Oval, where Musk — donning a black DOGE hat and “DOGE Father” shirt — stood silently for much of the press conference. Asked about the Times report, the billionaire retorted that a judge on Thursday had found that a defamation suit filed by Trump against the paper could proceed. “That New York Times?” Musk asked. “Let's move on.”
Trump and Musk emphasized that DOGE would continue to search for waste, fraud and abuse and that “almost all” members of the DOGE team will stay on.
Musk, after first projecting that DOGE would save the government $2 trillion, walked that figure back to $1 trillion — still a vast overestimate for the $175 billion the initiative says it has cut. Even that figure may be inflated, since DOGE’s accounting has been rife with errors, according to multiple news reports.
Musk on Friday said he still believed DOGE would ultimately find $1 trillion in savings.
“This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning,” Musk said.
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