Trump gives Elon Musk an Oval Office sendoff
By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON AP President Donald Trump bid farewell to Elon Musk in the Oval Office on Friday providing a cordial conclusion to a tumultuous tenure for the billionaire entrepreneur Musk is leaving his position spearheading the Department of Governing body Efficiency and he ll be rededicating himself to running his businesses including electric automaker Tesla rocket company SpaceX and social media platform X Trump credited Musk with a colossal change in the old options of doing business in Washington and mentioned specific of his staff would remain in the administration Musk who wore all black including a T-shirt that noted The Dogefather nodded along as the president listed contracts that had been cut under his watch I think the DOGE club is doing an incredible job Musk revealed after accepting a ceremonial key from the president They re going to continue to be doing an incredible job Elon Musk attends news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House Friday May in Washington AP Photo Evan Vucci He left a searing mark on the federal bureaucracy including thousands of employees who were fired or pushed out Several executive functions were eviscerated such as the U S Agency for International Improvement which had provided a lifeline for impoverished people around the world Boston University researchers estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have already died as a upshot of the USAID cuts Despite the upheaval Musk also fell far short of his goals After promising to cut trillion or even trillion in federal spending he lowered expectations to only billion in the current fiscal year It s unclear whether that target has been hit The DOGE website tallies billion in savings but its information has been riddled with errors and embellishments Trump reported Musk had led the largest part sweeping and consequential administration improvement effort in generations He suggested that Musk is really not leaving and he s going to be back and forth to keep tabs on what s happening in the administration Related Articles Feds detain immigrant family at Denver courthouse amid new Trump strategy Leadership shakeups at agency tasked with carrying out Trump s mass deportations agenda Supreme Court lets Trump strip legal protections from people exposing more to deportation Google Justice Department face off in climactic showdown in search monopoly occurrence Trump administration publicly lists sanctuary jurisdictions including of Colorado s counties Musk the world s richest person in recent months announced he would reduce his political donation s He was Trump s top donor in last year s presidential campaign Trump appeared eager to end Musk s provision on a high note This will be his last day but not really because he will reliably be with us helping all the way Trump wrote on social media on Thursday evening Elon is terrific As a special leadership employee Musk s position was designed to be temporary However he had speculated about staying indefinitely working part time for the administration if Trump still needed his help Musk has brushed off questions about how DOGE would continue without him even suggesting it could gain momentum in the future DOGE is a way of life he advised reporters not long ago Like Buddhism Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this record
