Posted on 04/02/2025 8:47:06 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
President Donald Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man.
The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role, according to three Trump insiders who were granted anonymity to describe the evolving relationship.
Musk’s looming retreat comes as some Trump administration insiders and many outside allies have become frustrated with his unpredictability and increasingly view the billionaire as a political liability, a dynamic that was thrown into stark relief Tuesday when a conservative judge Musk vocally supported lost his bid for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat by 10 points.
It also represents a stark shift in the Trump-Musk relationship from a month ago, when White House officials and allies were predicting Musk was “here to stay” and that Trump would find a way to blow past the 130-day time limit.
One senior administration official said Musk is likely to retain an informal role as an adviser and continue to be an occasional face around the White House grounds. Another cautioned that anyone who thinks Musk is going to disappear entirely from Trump’s orbit is “fooling themselves.”
The transition, the insiders said, is likely to correspond to the end of Musk’s time as a “special government employee,” a special status that temporarily exempts him from some ethics and conflict-of-interest rules. That 130-day period is expected to expire in late May or early June.
Musk’s defenders inside the administration believe that the time is right for a transition, given their view that there’s only so much more he can cut from government agencies without shaving too close to the bone.
But many others say, he’s an unpredictable, unmanageable force who has had issues communicating his plans with Cabinet secretaries and through the White House chain of command led by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, frequently sending them into a frenzy with unexpected and off-message comments on X, his social-media platform — including sharing unvetted and uncoordinated plans to gut federal agencies.
The political threat Musk poses was highlighted Tuesday after Democrats seized on Musk’s roughly $20 million investment in the Wisconsin race, with some openly calling it a referendum on the polarizing mogul.
Trump, however, had already started easing the glide path starting more than a week before the election — including at a March 24 Cabinet meeting where he told attendees that Musk would be transitioning out of the administration, according to one of the insiders, who did not attend the meeting but was briefed on the comments. A senior administration official confirmed Trump discussed Musk’s transition at the meeting.
Immediately after making the announcement, Trump invited reporters and cameras in for the tail end of the meeting, where he lavished praise on Musk, who attended the meeting wearing a red MAGA hat. Cabinet secretaries — many of whom had clashed with Musk just weeks before over Musk’s bull-in-a-china-shop approach to cutting their departments — in turn jumped in to hail his bureaucracy-slashing campaign.
“Elon, I want to thank you — I know you’ve been through a lot,” Trump said, mentioning death threats and the spate vandalism directed at the cars built by Tesla before calling him “a patriot” and “a friend of mine.”
Both men subsequently hinted publicly at a transition. When Fox News’ Bret Baier asked Musk on Thursday whether he’d be ready to leave when his special government employee status expires, he essentially declared mission accomplished: “I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that time frame.”
On Monday night, Trump told reporters that “at some point Elon’s gonna want to go back to his company,” adding: “He wants to. I’d keep him as long as I could keep him.”
“As the President said, this White House would love to keep Elon around for as long as possible,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said Tuesday as election results from Wisconsin rolled in. “Elon has been instrumental in executing the President’s agenda, and will continue this good work until the President says otherwise.”
But many close to Trump are increasingly relieved that Musk is expected to soon move on from his central role at Trump’s side and that the litany of DOGE surprises — which have ranged from a weekend email blast demanding federal workers list their work output to accidental cuts to Ebola prevention programs — might finally be coming to a close.
That’s to say nothing of their concerns about Musk as a political liability who has served as a rallying point for fractured Democrats.
He can always be brought back and the infrastructure he has created stays in place.
Elon’s contract was only through May, so this tracks.
Of course, the Left will see this as, “See! Our pointless, idiotic, and destructive tactics worked!”
Going to be a LONG and STUPID 4 years thanks to the commies on the Left.
Whoever leaked this story should be flogged
Elon himself said it would be at the end of May.
If in fact this is true, I think that the timing has a lot to do with Wisconsin.
Why am I reading Politico?
You forgot this part; “Tesla achieved a notable increase in energy storage deployments, reaching 10.4 GWh, up 156% year-over-year.”
Always trust stories from the liberal media that quote “many others”
Propaganda. Picked up some Tesla stock last week though, so I’ve got that going for me.
I think Wisconsin was a hail mary, and it ended as expected. At least Musk tried to give it a chance, unlike what the GOP typically does....nothing.
Leaving soon, as planned from the beginning. Next comes the needed actions identified by his work.
Oh, and BTW, the dems stole the state Supreme Court election in Wizconsin.
He is setting up his departure Hollywood-style. Riding off into the sunset.
Brilliant.
His abrupt style can get old with the masses so he has to quit and leave the ‘details’ to others. Leaders take the arrows. Think Newt. Good speaker but bomb thrower in his background. You have to move on.
Did you miss the part where Elon was only under contract until May? He was leaving either way regardless of what happened in Wisconsin.
This has been common knowledge since February when the whole DOGE thing took center stage Nationally.
Why is that?
I don't think Wisconsin is going to be the boon that Democrats think it will be.
-PJ
When a company with a $900 billion market capitalization takes a 10% swing in its valuation within minutes of this story’s release, that seems to mean that this rumor blind-sided the vast majority of professional investors.
If it’s untrue and denied by the White House, the price reversal will be just as sudden.
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