Elon Musk is exiting the White House with little to show for his cost-cutting push and a list of frustrations from his time in the Trump administration. <\/p>\n
Musk entered politics with grand ambitions of slashing federal spending and chipping away at the $36 trillion in national debt. <\/p>\n
But after months of serving Trump as a loyal supporter and close advisor, Musk has grown increasingly critical of the president\u2019s fiscal policies as his own efforts fall short. <\/p>\n
The tech billionaire announced his departure Wednesday shortly after voicing concerns<\/a> about a sweeping tax and spending bill backed by Trump and congressional Republicans, which is expected to add trillions of dollars to the national debt. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s running into the realities that we\u2019ve been trying to cut government for decades and trying to cut spending, and it\u2019s been incredibly difficult,\u201d Republican strategist Chris Johnson told The Hill. <\/p>\n \u201cI think Musk leaving is probably due to that frustration, just the reality of running into the same problem that conservatives have been running into for 30 years, where without big, bold acts of Congress … there\u2019s really limited stuff that you\u2019re going to be able to cut. And ultimately, there\u2019s just not an appetite for those kind of cuts apparently in the House right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump announced Thursday night that he would hold a press conference Friday with Musk to mark the end of his official government service, tamping down on speculation of a rift between the two.<\/p>\n \u201cThis 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,\u201d Trump posted on Truth Social.<\/p>\n But Musk’s willingness to go to bat for Trump \u2014 and his alignment with the president’s agenda \u2014 are in question after his tumultuous White House stint.<\/p>\n Musk began Trump\u2019s second term with big plans to cut up to $2 trillion from the federal budget, an attempt to begin paying down a record-shattering national debt he pinned on leaders in both parties. <\/p>\n As the head of Trump\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) panel, Musk led a crusade to dramatically cut the size of the federal government and its spending. <\/p>\n But as DOGE hit several well-worn roadblocks to serious debt reduction, the cost-cutting team claimed to identify $160 billion in potential spending cuts, some of which must be approved by Congress. <\/p>\n A source close to the White House suggested that Musk \u201ctried to make a good faith effort\u201d but ran into the limitations of the government. <\/p>\n \u201cHere’s a guy who can put rockets on moon \u2026 and somehow he ran into government,\u201d they said. \u201cJust the mechanization of government, and for him, I think, that was very confounding and difficult.\u201d <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Congress is ramping up efforts to pass Trump\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful bill,\u201d which would extend and expand tax cuts from the president\u2019s signature 2017 tax law, in addition to making sweeping new cuts to Medicaid and food stamps. <\/p>\n Despite the new cuts, the bill is expected to grow the federal debt by roughly $3.8 trillion over ten years, drawing Musk\u2019s ire. <\/p>\n \u201cI was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,\u201d Musk said in a snippet of an interview with \u201cCBS Sunday Morning\u201d set to air later this week. <\/p>\n Johnson underscored that the deficit has never been a key priority for Trump, as opposed to issues like immigration, trade and foreign policy. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always the \u2018Take Trump seriously, not literally\u2019 thing. I wish they had taken him a little more seriously,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cThis sort of America First, new right, MAGA crowd is much more comfortable with using state power and expanding the state in certain places and spending government money to do certain things,\u201d Johnson added. <\/p>\n \u201cIf Elon had taken that a little bit more seriously going in, he probably wouldn\u2019t be as frustrated and be much more levelheaded about what the likely outcomes would be and what was the art of the possible,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n The Trump administration and House Republicans appeared keen to appease Musk on Wednesday, indicating they would move quickly on long-promised DOGE cuts in Congress. <\/p>\n The White House now plans to send a package clawing back $9.4 billion in funding to lawmakers next week, while Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) vowed to codify the cuts and touted Musk\u2019s \u201cincredible work exposing waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government.\u201d <\/p>\n However, Musk has indicated that rising debt levels aren\u2019t his only concern<\/a> with the bill. The Tesla CEO reposted an X post from his company Tesla Energy late Wednesday, suggesting the legislation moves too quickly to phase out Biden-era low-carbon energy tax credits. <\/p>\n The tech billionaire\u2019s opposition comes at a key moment for the bill, as it faces an uncertain future in the Senate amid a growing chorus of complaints<\/a> from fiscal hawks in Congress and other prominent conservative voices. <\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time Musk has clashed with Trump and other conservatives during his fourth-month stint in the White House. <\/p>\n Even before Trump was sworn in, Musk was sparring online with other conservatives over H1-B visas, a temporary, nonimmigrant work permit. He and other Silicon Valley leaders argued the program was key for bringing in international talent to U.S. companies, while more hardline GOP voices alleged it was taking jobs away from Americans. <\/p>\n Once Trump took office, the tech billionaire still didn\u2019t hold back, publicly criticizing the president\u2019s Stargate initiative with OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, which aims to funnel $500 billion into new artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the U.S. <\/p>\n