Why did Elon Musk step down from DOGE in rare break with Donald Trump?

Elon Musk steps down from his US government role after publicly criticizing Donald Trump's spending bill, marking a rare political rift between the two allies.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk announced on Wednesday that he is stepping down from his role in the US government, ending a high-profile tenure meant to slash federal spending. The decision comes amid Musk’s first major public rift with President Donald Trump, centered around the administration’s controversial new spending bill.

"As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending," Musk wrote on his social media platform X.

Musk’s departure marks a striking break from Trump, with whom he had been closely aligned, even serving as the largest donor to Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign.

Musk Criticizes Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” Spending Plan

At the heart of the fallout is Trump’s signature “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” — a sweeping proposal that includes tax relief and spending cuts. The bill passed the House last week and is now headed to the Senate.

But Musk took sharp aim at the bill, suggesting it would undo much of the progress made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the task force Trump assigned him to lead.

"I 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," Musk said in an interview with CBS News, an excerpt of which aired Tuesday night.

He added pointedly: "A bill can be big, or it can be beautiful. But I don't know if it can be both. My personal opinion."

“DOGE Is Becoming the Whipping Boy”

The South African-born Tesla and Space X chief has long expressed frustration over bureaucratic inertia in Washington, saying his DOGE team — staffed by young technicians and based in the White House — became a scapegoat for wider government failures.

"DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything," Musk told The Washington Post from Space X's Starbase launch site in Texas. "Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it."

He further added, "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."

Rising Tensions Over Policy and Politics

Despite early success in reducing the federal payroll and restructuring several departments, Musk’s DOGE initiative faced mounting political headwinds. Trump's new bill, critics say, could inflate the national deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade while slashing essential services like healthcare.

White House officials attempted to downplay the tensions, with Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller clarifying on X: "The Big Beautiful Bill is NOT an annual budget bill," and noting that DOGE-related cuts would require separate legislation.

Still, Musk’s decision to speak out against the bill — and resign — was a rare public act of dissent from a key Trump ally. He had already signaled a partial retreat in April, citing the need to refocus on his businesses.

Business Backlash and Personal Reflections

Musk’s involvement with government reform also came at a cost to his private ventures. Tesla dealerships faced protests, and some vehicles were even torched by opponents of the DOGE layoffs and cuts.

"People were burning Teslas. Why would you do that? That’s really uncool," he told the Post.

Space X, too, suffered setbacks — including the explosion of a prototype Starship over the Indian Ocean this week — prompting Musk to redouble his focus on the company’s Martian ambitions.

He also hinted at stepping back from political donations altogether, noting he had spent nearly $250 million supporting Trump’s 2024 campaign.

Final Farewell

Despite the rift, Musk’s farewell message remained cordial: "The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government," he wrote on X.

As one of the most visible faces of Trump’s push to shrink government, Musk's exit marks both a personal and political turning point — and leaves open questions about the future of federal reform under the Trump administration.