Elon Musk leaves his role as government as the main advisor to the American president Donald Trump After spending efforts to reduce and revise the federal bureaucracy.
His departure, announced Wednesday evening, marks the end of a turbulent chapter which included thousands of layoffs, the Evisceration of government agencies and litigation oars. Despite the upheavals, the billionaire entrepreneur had trouble in the unknown environment of Washington, and he did much less than he hoped.
He has considerably reduced his target for reducing expenses – by 2 dollars to 1 Billion of US dollars at 150 billion US dollars – and has expressed more and more frustration as to resistance to its objectives. Sometimes he encountered other high -level members of Trump’s administration, who rubbed the efforts of the newcomer to reshape their departments, and he faced a fierce political flame for his efforts.
The role of Musk working for Trump was always intended to be temporary, and he had recently pointed out that he would criticize his attention to the management of his businesses, such as the electric manufacturer Tesla and the SPACEX rocket company.
But administration officials were often vague at the moment when Musk retired from his position leading the Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government, known as Doge, and he suddenly revealed that he was leaving in an article on X, his social media website.
“While my scheduled time as an employee of the special government ends, I would like to thank the president @realdonaldtrump for the advisability of reducing unnecessary spending,” he wrote. “The @doge mission will only be strengthened over time because it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
A White House official, who asked anonymity to talk about the change, confirmed the departure of Musk.
Musk announced his decision one day after CBS published part of an interview in which He criticized the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative program By saying that he was “disappointed” by what the president calls his “great good bill”.
The legislation includes a mixture of tax reductions and strengthening immigration application. Musk described it as a “massive expenditure bill” which increases the federal deficit and “undermines the work” of his Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government, known as Doge.
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“I think that a bill can be great or that it could be beautiful,” said Musk. “But I don’t know if it could be both.”
Trump, speaking in the oval office on Wednesday, defended his program by speaking of the delicate policy involved in the negotiation of the legislation.
“I am not happy with certain aspects of this one, but I am delighted by other aspects,” he said.
Trump also suggested that more changes could be made.
“We will see what’s going on,” he said. “It’s a path to go.”
The Republicans recently pushed the measure across the room and debate it in the Senate.
Musk’s concerns are shared by certain republican legislators. “I sympathize with Elon discouraged,” said Wisconsin Ron Johnson’s senator.
Speaking on Wednesday at a Milwaukee Press Club event, Johnson added that he was “quite confident” that there was enough opposition “to slow down this process until the president, our leadership, became serious” to reduce expenses. He said there was no pressure that Trump could make him change to change his position.
President Mike Johnson asked senators to make the least changes to the legislation as possible, saying that the Republicans of the Chamber had reached a “very delicate balance” which could be upset with major changes. The closely divided chamber will have to vote again on the final adoption once the Senate has changed the bill.
On Wednesday, Johnson thanked Musk for his work and promised to continue more discounts of spending in the future, saying that “the house is impatient and ready to act on the conclusions of Doge”.
The White House sends proposed cancellations, a mechanism used to cancel the expenses previously authorized, in Capitol Hill to consolidate some of the Doge Cups. A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said the package would include US $ 1.1 billion from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which finances NPR and PBS, and USU 8.3 billion dollars in foreign aid.
Musk seemed occasionally reprimanded by his work experience in government.
“The situation of the federal bureaucracy is much worse than what I thought,” he told Washington Post. “I thought there were problems, but it is certainly a difficult battle while trying to improve things at DC, to say the least.”
He also recently declared that he would reduce his political expenses, because “I think I did enough”.
Musk had already been under tension by the opportunity to reshape Washington. After putting at least $ 250 million behind Trump’s candidacy, he wore campaign hats in the White House, organized his own campaign rallies and spoke of excessive expenses as an existential crisis. He often tended to be efficient in his Trump praise.
“The more president Trump knew myself, the more I love the guy,” said Musk in February. “Frankly, I love it.”
Trump reimbursed the favor, describing Musk as “a really big American”. When Tesla faced a drop in sales, he transformed the alley of the White House into a makeshift exhibition hall to illustrate her support.
It is not known what is, if necessary, that Musk’s comments on the bill would have on the legislative debate, in particular given his departure from the administration. During the transition period, when his influence was on the rise, he helped make an opposition to a measure of expenses while the country was standing on the edge of a closure of the federal government.
His latest criticisms could embrace the Republicans who want more significant spending reductions. Utah republican senator Mike Lee has republished a story of Fox News on Musk’s interview while adding his own vision of the measure, saying that there was “still time to repair it”.
“The Senate version will be more aggressive,” said Lee. “He can, he must, and he will be. Or he will not pass.”
Only two Republicans – Warren Davidson representatives of Ohio and Thomas Massie from Kentucky – voted against the bill when the Chamber took the measure last week.
Davidson took note of musk’s comments on social networks.
“I hope that the Senate will succeed with the major bill on the major bill where the Chamber has missed the moment,” he wrote. “Do not expect that someone else will one day cut the deficits, know that this congress was done.”
The Congressional Budget Office, in a preliminary estimate, said that the tax provisions would increase federal deficits by 3.8 billions of dollars during the decade, while the modifications made to Medicaid, to food coupons and other services would reduce the expenses of just over 1 billion of US dollars over the same period.
The Republican leaders of the Chamber claim that increased economic growth would allow the bill to be without deficit or reduction of the deficit, but the external guard dogs are skeptical. The Committee for a Federal Budget Responsible believes that the bill would add 3 US dollars billions to debt, including interest, during the next decade.
–The writers of the Associated Press Scott Bauer in Milwaukee, and Kevin Freking, Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.