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.
“A truth that’s told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent.”
William Blake
Correct. And the department statute expires in 15 months.
BS——> Gotta love anon sources
“according to three Trump insiders who were granted anonymity to describe the evolving relationship”
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What is your point in regard to what I said?
So which person in Trump’s inner circle leaked this to Politico?
Isn’t the point of an inner circle to talk private stuff with loyal friends?
El Rush-Bo used to explain how EVERYONE, 'experts' told him that he would never succeed at a daytime, nationally syndicated talk radio show. Rush would say something close to: "Why would anyone listen to, or take advice from, people who have failed?"
“ Levit has just stated this report is utter GARBAGE!!!”
Because it is.
What’s more disturbing to me is how many people here on this site STILL fall for media spin. Shame on anyone who doesn’t immediately become suspicious when presented with stuff like this. A tell is these stories ALWAYS are attributed to anonymous sources. Classic MSM propaganda.
We here should know better by now.
Im just excited being in his Inner Circle!
Another cautioned that anyone who thinks Musk is going to disappear entirely from Trump’s orbit is “fooling themselves.”
His crew has been briefed on a memorandum of points to follow
now the bigger take downs ensue.
Burning Tesla’s was like burning your shorts with you in them.
Musk has done great work. Now, the work will go underground. The work will go on, but it will be underground. The Cabinet Secretaries will do it. Meanwhile, the left will lose it’s boggyman.
On Tuesday, Musk said some dude was “Getting arrested Tomorrow” for the theft and sale of around 400,000 social security numbers. that never happened... and then this...
I sure hope my gut feelings that Trump has no plans on arresting anybody are a figment of my imagination... but all signs so far are telling me they’re not.
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