Tesla chief executive Elon Musk confirmed on Thursday that his term as a Special Government Employee will conclude on Friday, May 30 — the end of the 130-day limit for such appointments starting from January 20.
Musk was appointed to lead the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a Trump administration initiative aimed at curbing federal spending.
In a post on X early Thursday, Musk said: “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.”
He added that “the @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
Earlier this week, in an interview with CBS News, Musk said he was “disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”
In a separate interview, Musk acknowledged the difficulty of delivering on his mandate.
“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,” he said. “I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.”
Musk had already signaled his reduced involvement in government efforts during Tesla’s first-quarter earnings call in April.
“The large slug of work necessary to get the DOGE team in place and working in the government to get the financial house in order is mostly done,” he said. He noted that going forward he would be “allocating far more of my time to Tesla.”
Following those remarks, Tesla shares rose nearly 4%.
While winding down his formal role, Musk said he would remain loosely involved. “I’ll probably spend a day or two per week on it for as long as the president would like me to do so.”
President Trump, speaking in early April, praised the initiative: “There will be a point at which the secretaries will be able to do this work and do it, as we say, with a scalpel.”
