As Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man, said, his role in piloting President Donald Trump's government efficiency (DOGE) has become “the end.”
However, the president announced in a social media post Thursday night that he and Musk will team up at a 1:30pm ET White House press conference on Friday, teasing Musk that he will continue to help the Trump administration.
“This will be his last day, but it's not because he's always with us and will always help. Elon is amazing!”
Musk's national politics and political impact on next year's midterm elections — for better or worse — is not over, and could live well beyond the official departure from the Trump administration.
What will be next for Doge after Elon Musk's departure?
Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest person, announced this week that President Donald Trump's role in President Doge is “closing an end.” (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump created the doge with a march order to overhaul and reduce the federal government after reclaiming the White House in the election last November. Trump has nominated Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and has piloted the organization, Trump's biggest political donor in the 2024 election.
“Elon Musk has tried most seriously to reduce the size and scope of government in modern political history. It was sometimes confusing but shocking,” veteran GOP strategist Ryan Williams told Fox News.
Williams predicted Musk's “not only will his political football efforts continue, but he is also a guide for Republicans if he is serious about limiting federal growth.”
After returning to the White House in January, Musk and Doge quickly swept federal agencies and eradicated what the new administration claimed in billions of federal spending. Additionally, they took the flesh cleft to federal workers, resulting in massive miniaturization of their employees.
Nothing symbolizes a move beyond the chainsaw wielding during a February appearance at the Maga dominant conservative political action conference.
The Doge move attracted public attention and caused many lawsuits accordingly. Many of Doge's cuts in government staffing have been hampered or reversed by federal court orders.
Doge was originally tasked with cutting $2 trillion from the federal government's budget, but earlier this week the Doge website said previous efforts have saved about $175 billion in money, along with other steps to eliminate costs, by selling assets, cancelling contracts and reducing fraud.
Musk's criticism of Trump's “big beautiful bill” irritates some Republicans
It was a big deal that the masks arrived in the country's capital.
Thanks to his direct pipeline to the president and his powerful mouthpiece on social media site X, Musk immediately made repeated headlines with his provocative moves and targets of people he disliked.
Trump repeatedly praised Musk and Kudji's efforts.
“The majority of people in this country really respect and appreciate you. This whole room can say it very strongly. You were truly an incredible help,” the president said at a cabinet meeting four weeks ago that Musk announced he would cut back on time with Kuzi and the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump, Right, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, special advisor to the president, will speak to a reporter near the Red Model Tesla vehicle on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Pool via AP)
But behind the scenes there was much less harmony.
“People were really tired of him,” a veteran Republican strategist with a connection with Capitol Hill with the administration who asked him to remain anonymous in order to speak more freely.
“He was fun to begin with,” the strategist added, “people inside and around the administration and outside were “tired from masks.”
Furthermore, Musk's recent criticism of Trump's sweeping “Big Beautiful Building” that passed a massive Congressional hurdle did not help the issue.
Many polls, including the Fox News national survey, showed that Americans prefer the idea of reducing the federal government, but those same surveys highlighted that they were less excited about how Musk and Doge cut the federal bureaucracy.
The White House reveals the next steps for Doge after Musk's departure
Musk, which spent nearly $300 million to help Trump win the White House in 2024, quickly became a light-rod in a handful of off-year and special elections held earlier this year.
Through an aligned political group, Musk cooked about $20 million in a battlefield Wisconsin-famous state Supreme Court race to support Judge Brad Simmell, a conservative candidate who was backed by Trump-backed candidate in the election.
In a controversial move, Musk handed out a $1 million check at a meeting in Green Bay two nights before the election, and two Wisconsin voters have already voted in the contest and signed a petition to stop the “activist judge.”
Billionaire businessman Elon Musk arrives at City Hall wearing a cheesehead hat on March 30, 2025 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
At the rally, Mask wore a cheesehead hat, a foam wedge that resembles a chunk of cheese.
However, Shimmel lost 10 points to candidates handed over to Democrats in what appears to be a close contest. Musk was tagged with a lot of responsibility in a race that was partially transformed into a referendum on his efforts at Doge.
The top 5 wildest moments of mask dog tenure
Democrats have repeatedly made masks bogeymen in messages at Wisconsin and other contests, pledging to continue targeting him as they head for next year's midterm elections, where Republicans defend their razor-spark home majority and modest Senate majority.
“The biggest heart for voters is the issue of notebooks. Democrats are going to win by highlighting the fact that Republicans are failing to lower costs because they are super-rich and busy pushing tax credits for large corporations.
Shelton emphasized that “Eron is an instantaneous recognizable manifestation of the fact that Republicans in the house do not work for Americans, and an instantaneous recognizable manifestation of the fact that they work for billionaires.”
So was there a potential political risk to the Republicans behind him leaving the country's Capitol?
A GOP strategist close to GOP lawmakers said “yes” when asked if mask welcome was exhausted among Congressional Republicans.
“But the bigger question about whether Musk and Doji are medium-term debt, I would say I wouldn't stress,” the strategist added.
The strategist said the GOP lawmakers “talked about waste, fraud and abuse and the savings Doge created really well.
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Additionally, veteran Republican strategist Matt Gorman is opposed to Democrats' debate over the lasting impact of masks on the campaign trail.
“Until Election Day 2026, I don't think Elon Musk will be a factor in any way in more than a year,” Gorman, a veteran of numerous presidential and statewide campaigns, told Fox News.
