President Donald Trump will hold a press conference Friday with Elon Musk to mark Musk’s departure from the White House.
Musk, co-founder and leader of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company, is leaving his job as a senior adviser after he revealed his plan to curtail political donations and criticized the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agenda.
“This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Thursday. “Elon is terrific!”
FILE – President Donald Trump listens as White House Senior Adviser Elon Musk, speaks next to a Tesla Cyber Truck and a Model S on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
It’s a quiet exit for Musk after a turbulent entrance: His work at the Department of Government Efficiency led to thousands of federal workers being indiscriminately laid off or pushed out — hundreds of whom had to be rehired — and some federal agencies were eviscerated.
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The press conference is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. ET. You can watch it live in the video player above or on LiveNow from FOX wherever you stream.
Why is Musk leaving the White House?
Today is Elon Musk’s final day in office. The Trump administration party ways with the former DOGE leader. This comes after Musk says he’s ‘disappointed’ with President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. Musk criticized the bill’s projected impact on the federal deficit and said it “undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.” Joining LiveNow to help break it all down is John Tamny, Founder/President of Parkview Institute weighs in.
Dig deeper:
Musk’s position was always designed to be temporary, and he had previously announced his intention to dedicate more of his time to his companies. Musk’s association with right-wing politics damaged Tesla’s brand and tanked sales. The advertising base for Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter, also needs to be rebuilt, and while SpaceX appears to be financially promising, it has seen some recent setbacks.
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What they’re saying:
Musk, however, told reporters last month that he was willing to work part-time for Trump “indefinitely, as long as the president wants me to do it.”
How much has DOGE saved?
The backstory:
During a campaign rally in October, Musk said he could find “at least $2 trillion” in spending cuts. In January, before Trump was inaugurated, he revised by saying, “if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting one.”
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But in April, at a Cabinet meeting, Musk provided a different target. He was “excited to announce” that they could reach $150 billion in savings during the current fiscal year. Even that goal may not be reached.
By the numbers:
According to the Musk Watch Doge Tracker, a website that verifies what Musk has actually cut versus what he’s claimed to cut, Musk is leaving the White House with claims of $165 billion in savings. But only $16.3 billion of that money has been confirmed as canceled funding, leaving $148.7 billion in alleged savings – or 90% – unverified.
The other side:
“They made some changes without really knowing what they were doing,” Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies for the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, told The Associated Press. “There were a lot of unforced errors … they set themselves up for failure.”
The Source: This report includes information from The Associated Press, the Musk Watch Doge Tracker and previous LiveNow from FOX reporting.