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The president is pleased with Musk, but the decision comes as the tech mogul increasingly looks like a political liability...
President Donald Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his cabinet, that Elon Musk will step down in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington man.
The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative, but the two men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take a supporting role, according to three Trump insiders who were granted anonymity to describe the evolving relationship.
Musk's impending withdrawal comes as some insiders in the Trump administration and many outside allies have become frustrated with his unpredictability and increasingly see the billionaire as a political liability, a dynamic that was easily shattered on Tuesday when a conservative judge Musk loudly supported lost the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court by 10 points.
It also represents a sharp shift in the Trump-Musk relationship from a month ago, when White House officials and allies predicted that Musk was "here to stay" and that Trump would find a way to get past the 130-day deadline.
A senior administration official said Musk would likely maintain an unofficial role as an advisor and continue to be an occasional face around the White House grounds.
Another warned that anyone who thinks Musk will disappear entirely from Trump's orbit is "deceiving themselves."
The transition, insiders said, will likely coincide with the end of Musk's time as a "special government employee," a special status that temporarily exempts him from certain ethics and conflict-of-interest rules. That 130-day period is expected to end in late May or early June.
Musk's defenders within the administration believe the time is right for a transition, given their view that there is much more to cut from government agencies.
But many others say he is an unpredictable and unmanageable force who has had trouble communicating his plans to cabinet secretaries and through the White House chain of command led by chief of staff Susie Wiles, often confronting them with a flurry of unexpected comments and messages on X, his social media platform.
Trump, however, had begun making announcements a week earlier — including at a March 24 cabinet meeting where he told attendees that Musk would be leaving the administration, according to an inside source who did not attend the meeting. A senior administration official confirmed that Trump discussed Musk’s transition at the meeting.
Shortly after making the announcement, Trump invited reporters and cameras to his meeting, where he praised Musk, who attended the meeting wearing a red MAGA hat. Cabinet secretaries — many of whom had clashed with Musk just weeks earlier over his approach to cutting their departments — in turn hailed his campaign to cut red tape.
"Elon, I want to thank you — I know you've been through a lot," Trump said, citing death threats and vandalism to cars built by Tesla before calling him a "patriot" and his "friend."
When Fox News' Bret Baier asked Musk on Thursday if he would be ready to leave when his special government employee status expires, he essentially declared mission accomplished. "I think we will have done most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that time frame," he said.
On Monday evening, Trump told reporters that "at some point Elon will want to come back to his company," adding "he wants to. I'll keep him as long as I can keep him."
"As the President said, this White House would like to keep Elon around for as long as possible," White House spokesman Harrison Fields said Tuesday.
But many people close to Trump are increasingly relieved that Musk is expected to soon step down from his central role at Trump's side. /Adapted from Politico Pamphlet/
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