White House responds to reports Elon Musk will step down from his role in US government 'soon'

The White House has responded to reports which claimed that Donald Trump has told members of his cabinet that Elon Musk will leave his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) 'soon'.

He was brought into the Trump administration to head up the cost cutting body, though his attempts have caused some problems as DOGE was sued multiple times shortly after being founded, and some of the employees sacked had to be rehired in short order.

Musk has told Fox News he reckons that he'll be able to find $1 trillion in savings for the US government, but his association with Trump has caused him some problems.

There have been boycotts of brands he owns, including his electric car company Tesla, and he said he thinks 'larger forces are at work' against him.

It was recently reported by Politico that Trump had said Musk would be 'stepping back in the coming weeks' from his work with the US government.

Musk can only spend 130 days working for the government in a calendar year as he's a special government employee, which would take him until the end of May (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

They said Trump was 'pleased' with Musk's cost-cutting efforts, with the US President saying on Monday (31 March) that 'at some point, Elon’s going to want to go back to his company'.

Trump further said he'd 'keep him as long as I could keep him', but since Musk is currently a special government employee he can only work for the US government for 130 days in a calendar year.

That would take him up until the end of May, which is only a few weeks away.

However, the White House fired back at Politico for their report as press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was 'garbage'.

She said: "Elon Musk and President Trump have both *publicly* stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete."

The White House said reports that Musk was leaving 'soon' were 'garbage', while Musk called them 'fake news' (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Musk also posted about the story on social media, calling it 'fake news'.

Politico had cited 'three Trump insiders' as their sources, who had also said the end of his time as a special government employee wouldn't be the complete end of Musk's time in the White House.

Their reporting had not stated whether Musk leaving 'soon' would mean he was going when his time as a government employee was up or whether he'd be leaving before he necessarily had to.

Musk's status as a special government employee means he can only work up to 30 May for 2025, but DOGE itself is not due to end operations until 4 July, 2026, according to the executive order Trump signed to get it started.

The Tesla boss was asked previously by Fox News whether he was going to continue on beyond his 130 day limit or not.

"I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame," he said.

LADbible has contacted Politico for comment.