BROWNSVILLE, Texas (Diya TV) — Elon Musk’s short-lived foray into federal governance came to a fiery end last week—both figuratively and literally—after his dramatic exit from the Trump administration and a failed rocket re-entry that closed out an already turbulent chapter for the billionaire entrepreneur.
Musk, who once called himself “first buddy” to President Donald Trump, joined the administration earlier this year with an ambitious plan to overhaul the federal government. Dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the initiative—spearheaded with a chainsaw demonstration at the Conservative Political Action Conference—promised to cut red tape and slash government spending.
In just four months, DOGE reduced federal staff by 250,000 through firings and buyouts. Musk gutted longstanding agencies, including the EPA and NOAA, despite public outcry and decades of scientific warnings about climate change. “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy!” Musk bellowed at CPAC in February.
But the cost of radical disruption hit hard. Tesla’s profits plummeted 71%, and Musk’s personal net worth sank by $100 billion, according to CBS News, which also reported violent backlash, lawsuits, and strained relationships across Washington. “DOGE became the whipping boy for everything,” Musk told the network in an exclusive interview aired Tuesday. “If there was some cut, real or imagined, everyone would blame DOGE.”
Despite claiming to have saved the government $175 billion—well short of his original $2 trillion target—Musk found himself increasingly isolated, both in Washington and with the president. Trump, once publicly effusive—calling Musk “a truly incredible guy” at a 2024 rally—had stopped posting about him by April. Still, they put on a united front during a White House event Friday, just days after CBS aired Musk’s criticism of Trump’s massive spending bill.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly,” Musk said, pointing out that it undermines DOGE’s efforts by ballooning the federal deficit. The Congressional Budget Office projects the legislation could add $3.8 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
That interview segment traveled quickly. Within 24 hours, Musk officially exited the administration, citing the end of his 130-day advisory stint. Though he had previously committed to working on DOGE part-time, the tone shifted. “DOGE is going to continue just as a way of life,” Musk said, adding, “but my focus has to be on the companies at this point.”
The abrupt exit highlighted deeper philosophical divides. “My frank opinion of the government is that the government is just, like, the DMV that got big,” Musk told CBS. “When you say, ‘Let’s have the government do something,’ you should think, ‘Do you want the DMV to do it?’”
Despite the public split, Trump left the door open. “Elon’s really not leaving,” he said Friday. “He’s gonna be back and forth, I think.”
For now, Musk says he’s returning to his core ventures—Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, Neuralink, xAI, and the Boring Company. “I guess you can think of the businesses as things that improve the probable trajectory of civilization,” he said. “I can’t guarantee success, but I can guarantee excitement.”
That promise was tested just hours later, when SpaceX’s ninth Starship test ended in another fiery failure—what the company refers to as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
As Musk left the interview to watch the launch from SpaceX’s site near Brownsville, he bore a black eye—reportedly from his five-year-old son, though some noted it mirrored a defaced bust of him outside the building.
Whether DOGE’s impact will endure or evaporate remains unclear. But for now, Musk is stepping away from the halls of power and back into the labs and launchpads that made him famous.
