It had been in the air for a few weeks but now the official announcement has been made . Starting in May, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world who entered Donald Trump's administration with a bang, will leave the leadership of the department created specifically for him and will focus on Tesla, his first creation that has had a stock market crash in recent months.

“Probably next month, my time with Doge will decrease significantly,” the “first buddy” said in a conference call with shareholders. Since its founder took to the field with his program of mega cuts to the government, he has sparked protests and retaliation across the United States and the carmaker has recorded a 20% drop in sales in the first quarter, compared to the same period of the previous year, while profits have fallen by more than 70%. Upon the news of Musk’s step back, Tesla immediately rose by 3.94% in after-hours trading on Wall Street and continued to have a positive trend throughout the following day. Temporary public employees, like Musk, can usually work 130 days a year, a period that for him will expire at the end of next month.

However, it is not yet clear when he will finally resign. The billionaire, who has spent over 270 million for Trump's campaign, explained that the work of the Department for Energy Efficiency is "almost complete" and assured that he will continue to work with the Doge team "to make sure that waste and fraud do not occur again".

"A day or two a week. As long as the president wants it," he said . Musk had promised during the election campaign to cut "at least" $2 trillion from the annual federal budget, but according to an indicator from the Brookings Institution, overall public spending in the calendar year 2025 is slightly higher than 2024 levels, even if the Doge effect is clearly visible on smaller agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development. At this point, we also have to wonder what will happen to the department that the SpaceX boss has modeled in his image and likeness by hiring very young and super intelligent nerds to eliminate thousands of jobs and costs deemed superfluous according to their very complicated calculations. The reasons for Musk's step back are not just the collapse of Tesla. According to the Washington Post, the billionaire is tired of having to deal with what he considers a series of unpleasant and immoral attacks from the Democrats and the disagreements with some members of the administration are becoming unsustainable.

The clash has intensified in recent weeks especially with the president's economic adviser, Peter Navarro, the architect of the tariff policy that in the long run could also damage Tesla. Only a few weeks ago Musk called him "an idiot", after the other had dismissed him as "a car assembler", with parts that come from Japan and China, and not a manufacturer.

And even with Donald himself in recent times, Elon has clashed. Like when he tried to convince him to take a softer line on tariffs including those against China.

(Online Union)

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