Elon Musk retires from federal service

By
Suzanne Downing
-
114
Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Photo credit: CSPAN screen shot

Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, says his time has come to an end in service to the federal government, where he was in charge of cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, and where he battled the political machine that was bent on out-of-control spending.

“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” Musk wrote on X.

The change was planned for weeks due to his status as a special, unpaid government employee, which limits employment to 130 days.

He announced his departure on May 28 and said he will focus more on his companies, particularly SpaceX and Tesla, though the White House and Musk have indicated that DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts will continue without his daily involvement.

Musk may still influence policy indirectly, despite scaling back his political involvement.

114 COMMENTS

      • do all his school bus full of kids get deported? is he a secret T-Shirt guy form South Africa? too many interesting questions and not enough QANON answers. is Steven Millers wife his new queen consort?

        this stuff is better than reading the old national Enquirer in the checkout lines, now on my phone. the joys of technology.

        keep up the great work gubbermint bashers, we’ll tear down this edifice and the kids will wonder where all the boomer 60’s protestors slinked off and hide.

        • There is probably much more to the story to see in the fullness of time. Much more cutting of the administrative branch of government is required since it is not authorized expressly in the founding documents. Mr. Musk was not allowed to cut more. He did a great job.

        • Groan! Really, James!
          Clearly you are another juvenile, who thinks that insulting someone is a “valid argument”. We get you don’t like Trump/Vance, but can you articulate it in a mature factual manner?

    • We congratulate him on what he DID accomplished with the help of other more trustworthy government people who was willing to work alongside him. Whatever he saw and whatever he did to improve the USA, I think he saw stuff he would rather not have to deal with as a President..He cleaned out alot of “GARBAGE” and alot of untrusted people. WE wish for the best on his next accomplishments.

    • courage good folks. with enough rocket toxic dust floating around the US electoral with vote for anything. thank the lord about we got rid of that pesky EPA just in time. I loves me rocket dust in the morning, gets me thinking great thoughts.

      I must be great since I’ve invented nothing but manufactured a great false narrative, like most of the leftest history teaches us. not the actual inventor ever gets the credit, the marketing folks and grifters.

      elon is a great man, he tells me so. like Charlie Kirk, that sage and witty combat veteran of the the Cambridge undergraduate shoot out. so much fun as the band plays, the boat sinks and still people think they have the upper hand.

  2. Well… There goes doge. I’m sure congress isn’t going to add funding back in to all those programs that were temporarily defunded.
    By the way. We’re so far in debt that it will take 390 years to pay it off if congress passed balanced budgets forever and dedicated $100 billion a year to pay off the existing debt

    • And yet Bill Clinton was well on the way to accomplishing it in less that 8 years! Why cant Republicans do the same thing.

      • Thanks for the laugh Tom!

        You had to go to the “way-back-machine”. You seem to forget that Bill Clinton had a republican house (for the first time in 40 years) and senate…….

        Yep remember the “Contract with America” and speaker Gringrich? All provisions of that contract were passed (except the term-limits) in the house. You know tax cuts, crime bill, middle class tax relief etc…..just saying!

        Furthermore the deficit in 1994 was $203 billion and the national debt $4.6 trillion. In 2023 the deficit was $1.7 trillion and the national debt $34 trillion.
        Yet you seem to give Joe and company a pass for spending us into oblivion by shoveling tax dollars out the door as fast and as unaccounted for as they could….

  3. Thanks Elon for stepping up to the plate and offering advice on ways to minimize a financial catastrophe within the federal government due to complete out of control spending on foolishness.

    Hopefully the hate and destruction from the lefties who thrive on government waste will cease the burning and destruction of the fine automobiles you have created just out of spite and they will shift their focus on their own party leaders who have guided them over a cliff.

    It was truly sad to watch rich and influential Hollywood stars having their cars towed to recycle for destruction to just to prove their ignorance and intolerance to free advice on ways to improve government efficiency and minimize wasteful spending of which matters little to them who get wealthy from pretending to be somebody.

    It was a worthwhile view of how the Democratic party imploded just at the idea of someone even looking into ways to save taxpayer dollars.
    The smart voters will stray from the party rulers but the majority will follow.

  4. And good riddance. There can be no doubt that Mr. Musk deeply regrets ever getting involved with government. Just think about it. He overpromised and underdelivered, he destroyed his personal reputation which was previously held in high regard, and he showed himself to be ineffective and immature. He destroyed the brand of his car company by alienating the liberal half of the nation that would by his products. He has been rightly accused for causing the suffering and death of children around the world by starvation due to the USAID cuts. His Board of Directors was actively seeking a replacement for him, and many of his employees secretly hold him in contempt for his actions. His addiction to Ketamine has been publicly exposed, and his strange personal life along with his bent for eugenics has been made public knowledge. Oh, and he’s also $300 million lighter after contributing to the Trump Organization. That ain’t nuthin’.

    Perhaps he has learned his lesson – that government is a cooperative effort that can’t be run in the same autocratic fashion as his businesses. Hopefully he has departed from the scene, never to return.

    The American people will support a downsizing of the federal government and its expenditures if the need to do so is made clear to them, and if they are asked to participate in the effort as a patriotic undertaking. People understand shared sacrifice when needed and when done in a fair, equitable, and honest manner. But when a Tech Bro with a bejeweled chainsaw gets up on stage wearing a T-shirt with multiple hats and claims to be effectively cutting government, people are turned off. This is serious business, not entertainment.

    In the end, Musk touched the hot stove and his fingers were badly burned. The hard-earned respect people had for him is gone, never to be recovered. And as predicted when he first arrived on scene, he did not last. As the old Chinese proverb goes, two tigers cannot live on one mountain top. And as we have observed many times, anyone who tries to steal the show from Trump will not be around for long.

    But still, it seems quite certain that someday, and probably soon, Trump will see fit to honor Musk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, desecrating that sacred honor once again.

        • I get it, you think you’re Macbeth:

          “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing…”

        • You can’t fool us Whidbey. We all know NPCs don’t think. They only regurgitate narratives.

          Good entertainment though. Great content for getting through the work day.

          Nothing like seeing retards (i mean democrats) self destruct while also lacking any self awareness to make better choices. Good stuff! Keep it up circus dog!

        • “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

          Shakespeare.

        • And….
          Here you are, reminding us all that your word is worth nothing. I guess you do actually read my comments.

          • Wow I guess it really gets under your skin that I read only some of your stuff. The short ones are tolerable but the long, enumerated diatribes take more time than I wish to waste.

            Pretty soon, just like many of the others (Jefferson, Forkner, et al), you will eventually tire of wasting your time on excessive comments, and go away.

            • Nah, its probably not that.

              Can’t speak for Jefferson, but my MRAK posts (critical of NBIII from the right) were no longer appearing during the two months prior to the election. One or two might have even been responses to your usual bait threads.

              At some point, well after the election, my comments were allowed to show up again. But why participate at all when the comments are just a stage-managed puppet show when its time to vote?

            • Does not get under my skin at all.
              Nothing you have ever done on MRAK has ever gotten “under my skin.” In fact, I quite enjoy our little back and froes. It was with great sadness that I read you were not going to read or respond to my comments anymore.
              .
              Then you did exactly what I expected you to do. Pretend you never said such a thing, and start responding.
              .
              You see, you are no different than any other leftist. Childlike in intellect and action, which also makes you predictable. When Elon Musk stepped back from his Special Government Employee position at the end of the contractual term (after it actually), I knew I could count on a comment full of leftists talking points from the dog. And, it showed up, right on schedule.
              .
              For that I thank you.

        • Hmm then maybe you should consider this WTD:

          “It is not the critic who counts:
          not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
          The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
          whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,
          who strives valiantly,
          who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions,
          who spends himself in a worthy cause;
          who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

          —Theodore Roosevelt

          • Thanks! One of my favorite TR quotes.

            But TR was a serious man bent on helping people and improving their lives. Musk, on the other hand, is a drug-addled Tech Bro, interested mainly in personal enrichment, fantasies about Mars, and polyamorous lifestyles. One deserves, credit, the other, derision.

            • How sad WTD.
              There is just not a gracious bone in your body and you are wrong.
              Elon Musk IS the man in the arena. He battled and achieve great victories (Starlink, Tesla and Space X), some at great cost. He has achieved and you are one of the timid souls full of jealousy so typical of small-minded bystanders….SAD!

      • USAID was audited several dozen times in 2024 by independent inspectors general. You may not agree with their stated goals, but I don’t think there’s much room to say that there was wide spread and massive fraud and abuse. I think it’s accurate to say that Trump won the narrative on the organization, but it doesn’t reflect anything about the reality of the organization.

            • What, emaciated kid did USAID ever help?
              Which grant actually provided food for children? Please cite it, and when it was issued. How many children actually were helped?

              Or, are you just repeating the NPC talking points again?

              • USAID’s investments in maternal and child health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, have significantly reduced the global under-five mortality rate. USAID funds programs provide vaccinations against preventable diseases, which are a major cause of child mortality. USAID’s funding for MCH and malaria has been shown to have a significant impact on reducing under-five mortality rates. BM- this program has saved countless lives but you would rather have another billionaire purchase his 3rd yacht with Trumps tax break. Countless Vet’s will lose SNAP and be kicked off of Medicaid. BM – how can you be so heartless to children and Vets?

                • Maybe I am heartless as an individual.
                  .
                  But… there are dozens of first world countries that could easily step up and fill the gap, and they aren’t. Why not? Who is more heartless, some anonymous jackhole on MRAK, or the entirety of Europe?
                  .
                  And, why are you giving me crap? Go after the billionaires with the yachts.

        • The problem is not that they were working within the law.
          The problem is their expenditures were meaningless, wasteful, and had zero effect in any way.
          .
          I know of several people who lost their companies (not their jobs, their entire company) because USAID funds were cut. If your entire company depends on the flow of money from the government, are you really providing services the public needs? (And, running a non-profit to “stop prison rape” is going to what… exactly? Mooch funds from the taxpayers, nothing else.)
          .
          If you can tell me how some of the garbage pushed by USAID increased the standing of the US in foreign countries, Ii am OK with it, but most of the wasteful spending did the opposite.

    • Whidbey Thedog, what the hell you smoking? Elon did a great service to our country, obviously you prefer those that are trying to destroy it.

      • Whidbey is aghast that millions of SSN# are now associated with deceased individuals. This will make it much harder for the leftist all-powerful State that he adores to come into being. And, now nine-month olds can no longer receive small business loans. Fleecing the taxpayer is that much more difficult as well.

    • It’s OK to admit that as a special government employee his time is legally limited to 130 days, of course that doesn’t fit the narrative and completely undermines everything you regurgitate from those who provide your talking points.

  5. We owe that man much gratitude for getting the ball rolling and showing it IS possible to find and cut wasteful government spending. Now if we could only do that in our own state.

    • “The administration has terminated more than 80% of USAID grants.

      “A BU global health professor estimated these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children.

      “That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.” NYT – Michelle Goldberg May 30, 2025.

      • I would like to see the math behind that “professor’s” estimate before I take it as any kind of result.
        .
        After all, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health estimates, the entire population of Gaza has been killed by the Israeli’s about five times over already. They are importing humans in order to keep the death rate up. (and, since you are a child…. errrr…. I mean leftist, I need to point out that is satire.)

        • That’s patently untrue, The Gaza Ministry of Health estimates 65,000 + people have been killed. The population of Gaza WAS 2.2 Million. Do the math big guy, it might feel good to think harder than Fox News writers for once, right? You really just suck up all that propaganda like a baby huh? Written by kids fresh out of college to piss you off, they are so good at it, making more at it than you ever did working while they’re at it. Nice!

          • Sigh, James the problem here is that many of the deaths claimed by the Gaza Ministry of health can not be independently verified and please note that CBMttek did NOT give a time frame for his assertion. Over the many years the Ministry of Health has claimed large numbers of casualties on an almost constant basis, attributing them ALL to Israel in order to garner sympathy and support. The veracity of those claims are often in doubt, as the ministry acts as the propaganda arm of Hamas.
            So maybe a little bit more critically thinking on your part is in order, as you seem to suck up all the propaganda Hamas puts out!

      • Sebastian, to your credit, you did mention that it is “an estimate”. However it is actually speculative computer modeling of a projection of what COULD happen, NOT what has happened. There are no confirmed deaths. The good professor Nichols admits that there are big uncertainties in the estimate, because of to date unknown adjustments affected countries will make/have made and uncertainty which programs are actually funded and which ones are not.
        So forgive me if I do not put a lot of stock in things Bono and this speculative mathematician proclaim.

      • I took a look into that BU professor’s estimate model.
        It is estimates based on estimates based on assumptions. in 2024, the nutrition program was allocated $168M, and the estimated cost per child was $100-$200.
        .
        The model assumes a similar budget (not a good assumption in any President’s administration). At an average cost of $150 per child, approximate (see…. approx…) 1.12M children with severe malnutrition will remain untreated. If 10-10% (a guess at best) were to die… we get that ridiculous number.
        .
        This is shoddy modeling at best, back of the napkin estimating. But, because it makes Trump look evil, it gets front page, above the fold, coverage.

  6. Musk figured out that the corruption is so deep that it’s futile. The right side of the isle is spineless and could care less about what the people voted for.

  7. He and his DOGE team did an incredible job of peeling back the layers of fraud, waste and abuse of the US government. The only ones not appalled at what he and his team found were those were benefitting from the thefts from social security, USAID and so many other programs. If only our congressional delegation had the integrity and fortitude to place the DOGE findings into law and start saving the taxpayers’ money. Alas, their stomach ailment will prevent this from happening. They have no guts.

    • Elon Musk’s DOGE is under scrutiny for claims of widespread Social Security fraud, used to justify proposed reforms. DOGE claimed massive fraudulent payments, but data suggests fraud rates are significantly lower than claimed. The Social Security Administration reports a small fraction of calls and payments are linked to fraud, contradicting DOGE’s assertions.

      • Well part of that issue seems to be the SSAdmin’s inability to label consistently, communicate with state or local authorities and move deceased individual promptly to an inactive listing. When you read reports of sons and daughters cashing mom or dad’s check for DECADES, one wonders how many tax dollars have been keeping ineligible individuals in the standard they grew accustomed to….Tax dollars which by all rights should have gone to actually living elders and keeping the system afloat.

  8. Suzanne his 115 day contract is up fake news & babbling on & on clowns suck, I look so forward to seeing what happens to all our GOD mocking oath breakers & all who went along when we meet up on the other side to see how we all did? Hold the line like JESUS did all

  9. DOGE did one thing, very well. It demonstrated to the public at large that US Government data systems are awful, and they are easy to manipulate to allow fraud.
    .
    Now, closing those vulnerabilities… I do not have much confidence that will happen any time soon.

    • Well, I know for a fact that several of the DOGE cuts impacted IRS efforts to do just that. And as you may know, if you are a IT-savvy person, upgrading these types of massive database systems can be extremely risky and very, very expensive. It will take many billions to update the old COBOL systems still being used to run the government’s everyday business. And more DOGE cuts are not the way to solve this problem.

      • If you are not reading my comments and do not care, why do you constantly reply to my comments?
        .
        Now, as to your statement about cost to upgrade IT systems, you are partly right. It can be very pricey.
        .
        Then again, the IT tools and server systems available today are significantly easier to program and maintain, have vastly improved query capabilities, and can import COBOL programmed databases seamlessly. Companies like SalesForce (as an example, I am not personally fond of their systems) can import and duplicate your existing data structures for pennies, compared to maintaining the existing system. And, incrementally adding capability is a piece of cake for these companies. Major companies across the world rely on software companies like that, but for some reason, the Federal Government seems to think they need a system built from scratch.

        • The consultants will bleed you dry. I’ve worked on this type of project, and it never ends even as the costs head towards the billions. And then some end up on the trash heap and they start over.

          • So… it is not actually…
            “…if you are a IT-savvy person, upgrading these types of massive database systems can be extremely risky and very, very expensive. It will take many billions to update the old COBOL systems still being used to run the government’s everyday business.”
            is not about the software, databases, or processors, it is about the consultants?
            .
            Why didn’t you just say so? Instead you babble on about database systems.
            .
            No wonder no one takes you seriously, you never actually say what you mean.
            .
            And, the entire purpose of DOGE is to get away from hiring on beltway bandits to design IT systems. Optimistically, I am hoping they do it. Realistically, I am more pessimistic.

      • DOGE cuts to IRS was a direct opposite response to Biden’s plan to hire 87,000 new agents and for some reason decided they needed to be “armed”…?

        Got any phony answers for that plan?
        CNN never expanded on that subject.

      • NOT upgrading them is eve more risky, and potentially more expensive . note that DOGE started on upgrades and were resisted at every turn by YOUR kind of people.

  10. Excellent work Elon! Now you can put your demon armor back on and refocus on continuing to build your empire back up. After having an inside look of the corruption in how our money has been wasted funding foreign affairs, you will have better tools available to gain better tracking in this ever hastening treadmill of life.

    Will I benefit from any of your actions? Maybe, but probably not. However you dear Elon shall reap all the material benefits of this world. I hope you continue to do what is right and continue to make those pesky leftists seethe.

  11. It’s amazing how much two businessman can get done running the country. Our politicians have proven to be incompetent and lacking the fortitude to actually do the job that they promised to do. What was stopping our senators from stopping the waste and fraud. I believe it was the lobbyists and the love of power. We now know that they could be been doing it all along.

    • “The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well, for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities.”

      – Abraham Lincoln

      • Correct. Now, read it again and again until you understand what it actually says, and what the operative words actually are.
        .
        Here, let me help.
        “…in their separate and individual capacities.”
        That’s it.
        .
        Can you provide for your own food and shelter? Yes. So… not a government function. How about healthcare and education? Yes, so not a government responsibility. Can you provide for your own transportation infrastructure? No. That requires collective effort. Can you provide for your own national defense? No, so government function.
        .
        See, you leftist quote Lincoln, but forget that the most important phrase is the last six words.

  12. Good riddance. That was turning into a side show. In reality Trump can hire anyone for that position but no one would have the name recognition of Musk. It was the path to maximum exposure

    • You are correct that it was the path to maximum exposure which is exactly what waste and corrupt spending of taxpayer dollars deserve.

      It is working peoples money that is being pissed away and there should be jail time for the persons responsible for the extreme intentional shifting of our money intended for disasters to help US and not to illegal immigrants invited and actually flown here to increase the Dems voter base.

        • Wait, wait you think $2 million for sex change operations in Guatemala, $20 million for Sesame Street in Iraq or $4.5 million to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan of all places, ISN’T a waste of taxpayer dollars? All those haven’t fed a child or provided clean drinking water. They only spread misery and discontent. How does that further our agenda around the world?

          If you want to support such endeavors create a charity and collect donations, don’t make the collective taxpayers pick up the tab for your pet projects. That’s not the purpose of taxation, WTD!

  13. Elon is a huge dork, and I predicted that Trumpworld would knife him in the back as soon as they had to deal with him on a personal level. The anti-Musk leaks will continue to trickle out off Steven Miller and JD Vance’s press teams at least until midterms. What glorious queens the MAGA boys are…

    • Speaking of Miller, hopefully that repulsive, reptilian creature will go down next. Never could get l**d, and we’ve all been paying the price.

  14. Republicans want $858 million for ICE bonuses. That works out to $42k per employee in addition to salary. Talk about waste!

    • In other news, egg prices have dropped from their continued rise since 2022 to the record high of $6.22/dozen in March to about $2.50/dozen currently (according to Trading Economics).
      I am disappointed that you did not report that Sebastian, since it was your chief concern just a few weeks ago!

  15. Musk managed to do several positive things:

    – Created the DOGE process, trained up a cadre of auditors, and turned them loose
    – Uncovered a boatload of corruption, to the point where if you clean up the corruption, you may be very close to balancing the budget
    – Proved this sort of thing was wildly popular with the general public, which in turn forced congress to get off the dime and start locking in the DOGE cuts with actual legislation. Note that legislation does not appear to need 60 votes in the senate to pass
    – Expect the first of these bills this summer. It should be followed by more, many more

    Try to not get balled up in the systems v goals argument. In this discussion, DOGE is a new system, created and installed by Musk, and supported by both Trump and Johnson so far. The actual dollar amount / balancing the budget is the goal, which like all recovering fat people know, is very difficult to achieve and maintain afterwards. DOGE is a system solution to a currently intractable problem, a start rather than an end. Cheers –

    • Musk is a naturalized American citizen. For him, being on the spectrum is a badge of honor rather than a point of criticism and probably fuels his spectacular success. Cheers –

        • Come on Hoeklbaeri, where is your compassion and your support for another human being who struggles with a disability? Where is your praise for his achievements, despite his circumstances? Isn’t that what we always hear from your corner? You know being inclusive, tolerant and at least respectful?
          I guess that’s too much to ask and we end up with infantile comments like yours!

          • Taxpayer would you like to continue on after today’s Musk/Trump skirmish? For some reason the story dominating the national scene is conveniently not being mentioned on this site. Why would that be? We had Doge after Doge story a month ago.

            • Sebastian again you missed the point. You can think of Musk or Trump what you like, but Hoeklbari making fun and demeaning a person with a physical ailment with the cheapest shot she/he can, is saying a great deal about her/his maturity level and inability to separate emotions from facts. It also proves beyond a shadow of the doubt that there is no basic respect for another human being in Hoeklbari’s world.
              Musk’s achievements are irrefutable. Why Suzanne chooses not to write stories about the Trump/Musk spat I do not know. You would have to ask her.
              I am not entirely sure what you mean about “would you like to continue after the T/M skirmish”. I can certainly see both sides and I do believe the bill has a lot a good things in it. Both men can disagree, it is the nature of democracy! In my opinion this is all a bit of kabuki theater.
              In the end I firmly believe we are better off with the current leadership than we would have been with either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris and I keep that in mind when evaluating issues.

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