While Elon Musk’s growing unpopularity was hurting the Republicans politically, his own business Tesla was suffering as well; is the honeymoon with Trump over?
The now-on, now-off bromance between US President Donald Trump and tech-billionaire Elon Musk seems to be up, for now.
The writing was on the wall — ever since Musk took up the mantle of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which shares its name with his cryptocurrency, he became one of the most disliked people in the United States and beyond. And that was hurting the Republicans politically, while Musk's political stand was hurting his own business.
Musk, through DOGE, fired hordes of people at what seemed like the drop of a hat (or maybe his trademark baseball cap), axed entire departments, and treated federal workers like his personal staff, giving them 48 hours to explain what they did over the previous week, evidently to judge their efficiency.
Also read: Musk announces departure from US admin after slamming Trump's 'big beautiful bill'
The man with the chainsaw
As his DOGE co-leader to-be, entrepreneur-turned-politician Vivek Ramaswamy, had predicted last year, Musk did not “bring a chisel, he [brought] a chainsaw”. And Musk in his inimitable style did brandish a red metallic chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” he declared, and it dealt its first major blow on his DOGE partner himself.
Merely 69 days after Trump announced their team, and even before Trump could take oath as the US president, Ramaswamy was out of DOGE, opting to run for Ohio governor in 2026. And from US media reports, it was evident that Musk played no small part in his unceremonious departure.
Perhaps the biggest of shockers came when Musk declared early February that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was “just a ball of worms” that was “beyond repair”, that it was “a criminal organisation”, and it was “time for it to die”. And he did kill it, after eventually gaining access to the agency after trying unsuccessfully for days.
Trump’s unwavering support
Through all of this, Trump was by his side, even though many snidely dubbed the eccentric tech honcho as “President Musk”, slyly indicating that he was the one running the show while Trump was just a paper tiger. Trump made it clear that Musk would not and could not do anything without his approval and backed Musk, saying that USAID “has been run by a bunch of lunatics” and “we’re getting them out”.
More shockers came in from Musk and DOGE later that month, with hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees on probationary status being fired and Musk giving lakhs of federal workers a little more than 48 hours to explain what they got done over the past week. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” Musk declared.
Trump still backed Musk, claiming that DOGE had found “hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud” as federal pay cheques were going to “non-existent employees”. The two men even held a joint presser, at which they spent a lot of time singing paeans in each other’s praise. Trump claimed that DOGE was significantly reducing government waste and potentially saving “hundreds of billions” of dollars.
Also read: Trump administration asks Supreme Court to let DOGE access Social Security systems
12 pc of federal workforce slashed
But things were hardly going smooth for the Tesla CEO. He dramatically reduced his target for cutting spending — from USD 2 trillion to USD 1 trillion to USD 150 billion — and increasingly expressed frustration about resistance to his goals.
On the campaign trail, Musk had said DOGE would be able to cut at least $2 trillion in federal spending. DOGE currently estimates its efforts have saved $175 billion so far, an unverified number.
So far, Trump and DOGE have cut nearly 12 per cent, or 260,000, of the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce largely through threats of firings, buyouts, and early retirement offers, says Reuters.
Attack on Tesla
As the government was bombarded with litigation following the rampant layoffs and termination of government agencies, Musk gradually faced a hit-back from Americans where it’d hurt him personally — Tesla.
As protesters started demonstrating outside his Tesla stores across Europe and the US, vandalising the vehicles and charging stations, Tesla sales dropped by 13 per cent in the first three months of 2025, the biggest drop in its history, while its stock price tumbled by 45 per cent. Though it has now rebounded, it’s still down by about 10 per cent.
The decline had the desired effect — in April, Musk told investors that his time devoted to DOGE would “drop significantly” and he would allocate “far more of [his] time to Tesla”.
Also read: US federal judge temporarily limits DOGE access to Social Security data
Clash with senior administrators
Besides Trump, Musk enjoyed limited visible support from other top members of the administration and faced fierce political backlash for his efforts. He reportedly clashed head on with three of Trump’s most senior Cabinet members — Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He called Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks.”
The billionaire entrepreneur sometimes looked like a fish out of water in the unfamiliar environment of Washington DC and not many took kindly to his unconventional ways of functioning. Musk sometimes seemed disenchanted by his experience of working in the government.
“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realised,” he told The Washington Post. “I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC, to say the least.” He also recently said that he’d reduce his political spending, because “I think I’ve done enough”.
Not an eternal love story
Musk did put in at least USD 250 million behind Trump’s candidacy. Eager to reshape Washington, he wore campaign hats in the White House, held his own campaign rallies, and talked about excessive spending as an existential crisis.
He was effusive in his praise of Trump. “The more I’ve gotten to know President Trump, the more I like the guy,” Musk said in February. “Frankly, I love him.”
Trump responded by calling Musk “a truly great American".
Yet, Musk and Trump were not always the best of friends. Musk told CNBC in 2016, “I feel a bit stronger that he (Trump) is not the right guy. He doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.”
Then again, in 2017, when Trump pulled out the USA from the Paris Climate Agreement, Musk resigned from the presidential advisory boards.
Also read: Trump says Elon Musk will step down soon as head of DOGE
Bromance back in 2022
But their bromance was back in 2022 when Trump described Musk as one of the “great geniuses” in the world and compared him to Thomas Edison.
In July last year, Musk joined Trump onstage at a rally in Pennsylvania, wearing the “Make America Great Again” cap and chanting “MAGA” with the crowd.
And in October, Musk promised to hand out USD 1 million to voters in swing states who’d sign his support for a free speech petition.
Growing distance
But since April this year, Trump seemed to be getting more and more annoyed with Musk, the US media speculated. The honeymoon phase continued through March, after which the American media figured that Trump had gone “awfully quiet” (The Daily Beast) about Musk.
The Tesla CEO had vanished from public White House programmes as well as Trump’s mentions of him on his social media site Truth Social. Musk had gone silent on Trump on X as well.
In February-March, Trump would mention Musk on Truth Social about four times a week. When Tesla’s sales declined, he even turned the White House driveway into a makeshift showroom to demonstrate his support.
Despite the bonhomie, a major point of friction was Trump’s position on immigrant visas. While the US president had to please his Republican supporters by blocking the entry of immigrants to ostensibly give Americans back their jobs, for entrepreneurs like Musk, whose businesses rely heavily on highly skilled Asian workers, such policies are untenable.
Also read: Tesla engineer sacked for criticising Elon Musk's 'Nazi joke': Reports
Public support continues
Publicly, though, Trump has continued to support Musk, even as his fellow Republicans have often expressed concerns to the media that Musk was becoming a political liability. An opinion poll in May showed that the majority of Americans hold an unfavourable view of Musk.
A major turning point came during the Republicans’ failure to win the Wisconsin supreme court election earlier this week, into which Musk had funnelled millions and headlined a political rally as well.
Yet, Trump told reporters recently that “Elon is fantastic” and that he wished the tech honcho could stay on as long as possible. But he added that Musk would, at some point, return to focus on his companies.
Departure raises questions
Musk’s role working for Trump was always intended to be temporary, as his “special government employee” designation carried a 130-day term. It was about to run out by the end of May.
But then, in early April, the White House had said that Musk would stay on to complete his mission to slash government spending and downsize the federal workforce. So, is his mission over?
What also set tongues wagging was his sudden departure — quick, unceremonious, and reportedly without a formal conversation with Trump before his announcement on X — a day after CBS released part of an interview in which he criticised Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that includes a mix of tax cuts and enhanced immigration enforcement.
Musk said he was “disappointed” by it, describing it as a “massive spending bill” that increases the federal deficit and “undermines the work” of DOGE. “I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful. But I don’t know if it could be both,” Musk said.
Also read: As Tesla shares continue to tumble, analysts blame ‘Trump bump’
Some Republicans stand by Musk
Some Republican lawmakers shared Musk’s concerns. “I sympathise with Elon being discouraged,” Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson said, according to AP. Johnson reportedly added that he was “pretty confident” there was enough opposition “to slow this process down until the president, our leadership, gets serious” about reducing spending.
As Trump defends the proposed legislation and Republicans debate it in the Senate, Musk abruptly revealed on X that he was leaving DOGE. “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote.
His “off-boarding will begin tonight”, Reuters quoted a White House official as saying late Wednesday, confirming Musk’s departure.
What of DOGE?
DOGE will continue though. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” Musk added in the post.
Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday thanked Musk for his work and promised to pursue more spending cuts in the future, saying “the House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings”.
The White House is reportedly sending some proposed rescissions — a mechanism used to cancel previously authorised spending — to Capitol Hill to solidify some of DOGE’s cuts. According to AP, the package will include USD 1.1 billion from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and USD 8.3 billion in foreign assistance.
