Trump says Musk is 'not really leaving,' fueling legal challenge over his role at DOGE

WASHINGTON — Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has led an effort successful the Trump medication to chopped jobs and programs crossed the national government, stood by President Trump’s broadside connected Friday successful the Oval Office, officially for the past clip arsenic a authorities employee. But neither antheral was wide whether Musk’s progressive manus successful authorities is genuinely over.

Their show of unity comes aft Musk, the entrepreneur down Tesla and SpaceX, issued a bid of criticisms of Trump’s policies, some straight and done his companies, and arsenic reports look that the billionaire fought fierce battles with the president’s aides and has relied connected potent drugs portion serving arsenic Trump’s confidante.

“Nobody similar him,” Trump said of Musk astatine the White House event. “He had to spell done the slings and the arrows, which is simply a shame, due to the fact that he’s an unthinkable patriot.”

“Many of the DOGE people, Elon, are staying behind. So they’re not leaving. And Elon’s truly not leaving,” Trump added. “He’s going to beryllium backmost and forth, I think, I person a feeling. It’s his baby.”

Musk praised the squad of DOGE, an acronym for the Department of Government Efficiency program, for redeeming what helium said was $175 cardinal successful authorities spending. The programme had initially acceptable a much lofty extremity of cutting $2 trillion, and it is unclear if Musk’s squad has adjacent met its revised figure, with the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service documenting an summation successful national spending implicit this clip past year.

“The DOGE squad is doing an unthinkable job,” Musk said. “I’ll proceed to beryllium visiting here, and beryllium a person and advisor to the president.”

Whether Musk continues successful his relation volition person ineligible consequences. As a peculiar authorities employee, Musk is obligated to extremity his service, present that the maximum enactment play allowed of 130 days has passed.

A radical of 14 states has sued, arguing that Musk’s worker presumption was a ruse for the Trump medication to bring him into a almighty authorities relation without having to spell done a Senate confirmation process.

A national justice successful Washington connected Wednesday ruled that Musk’s archetypal assignment was questionable, stating helium “occupies a continuing position” and “exercises important authority,” opening up a broader ineligible situation implicit the constitutionality of his enactment for DOGE.

In a bid of interviews starring up to his authoritative departure from government, Musk has said that helium plans to lessen his governmental spending going forward, and has criticized the Trump medication and legislature Republicans for pursuing authorities that would balloon the nationalist deficit, a determination helium said was contrary to DOGE’s mission.

His departure this week comes aft the New York Times reported connected Musk’s dense usage of ketamine, a potent anesthetic drug, and aft a Wall Street Journal nonfiction elaborate Musk’s attempts to thwart Trump from pursuing partnerships connected artificial quality successful the Middle East that would payment Sam Altman, the main enforcement of OpenAI and a idiosyncratic nemesis of Musk’s.

Musk’s clip successful authorities has been marked by aggregate setbacks for his companies. SpaceX has failed to conscionable indispensable engineering milestones for Starship, a captious super-heavy rocket vessel that is captious to the U.S. effort to instrumentality humans to the satellite and his ain idiosyncratic extremity of reaching Mars. And Tesla, his electrical conveyance company, saw a 71% plunge successful profits successful the archetypal 4th of 2025 and a 50% driblet successful banal worth from its highs successful December.

“I deliberation I astir apt did walk a spot excessively overmuch clip connected politics,” Musk told Ars Technica, a subject and exertion publication, successful an interrogation connected Tuesday.

“It’s not similar I near the companies,” helium added. “It was conscionable comparative clip allocation that astir apt was a small excessively precocious connected the authorities side, and I’ve reduced that importantly successful caller weeks.”