Trump calls Elon Musk’s exit from DOGE his ‘last day, but not really’ as billionaire leaves advisory role

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump revealed on Thursday, May 29, that Elon Musk, a designated special government employee, will leave the government on Friday, May 30, saying, "This will be his last day, but not really."

Since Musk was appointed as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the tech billionaire and his team upended several federal agencies through mass layoffs of thousands of employees, per Mediaite.

Donald Trump reveals Elon Musk set to exit government

Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday and wrote, "I am having a Press Conference tomorrow at 1:30 PM EST, with Elon Musk, at the Oval Office. This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House."

Notably, Musk can only formally work for the government for 130 days in 365 days as a designated special government employee.

Interestingly, the tech billionaire pledged to find $2 trillion in "waste, fraud, and abuse", but so far, the DOGE website lists just $175 billion.

Moreover, the most controversial DOGE moves were shutting down USAID and ending medical research grants at the National Institutes of Health.

Musk was a ubiquitous presence at the White House and Mar-a-Lago during the initial months of Trump’s second term but has been less visible recently.

Meanwhile, the multi-billionaire publicly opposed Trump’s massive spending bill this week, saying he was "disappointed" as it would increase the budget deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Interestingly, just hours before Trump’s social media post about Musk “not really” leaving, Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade made the same prediction on 'Fox & Friends'.

He said, "He’ll be back. I think he is going to take a little while off and he will be back in some way, shape, or form."

Elon Musk officially quits DOGE with a parting message for Donald Trump

Elon Musk took to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and wrote a parting message for Donald Trump as he officially quit DOGE.

He wrote, "As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Trump 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," the tech-billionaire added.

However, Musk also criticized the Trump-backed $3.8 trillion spending bill during an interview from his South Texas Starbase ahead of a new SpaceX launch.

He told CBS News on Tuesday, May 27, "It undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing. I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it."

Moreover, Musk also spoke to the Washington Post about how his government efficiency crew had been treated within the administration.

"DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything. Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it," he said.

Just before his exit from DOGE, Musk took a last aim at Trump’s "big, beautiful" bill.

He said, "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion."

Musk added to the Washington Post, "The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC, to say the least."