Elon Musk goes to the rear seat from the spotlight in Trump’s first 100 days
During President Trump’s first 100 days inauguration, Elon Musk became a more reduced role from the central figure.
Washington – We never asked to stay in Lincoln’s bedroom.
He wants that It’s very clear. That’s where President Donald Trump, who loves touring his famous guest suite, will set him up when he stays in the White House.
“We’re in Air Force 1 and the Marines. He’s like, ‘Do you want to stay?’ And I’m like, ‘That’s true,'” Musk said. “He’ll actually call late at night and say, ‘Oh, by the way, get some ice cream from the kitchen.’ ”
The late-night ice cream, which was held at Trump’s invitation, invites exactly the caramel flavour of Hagen Dazz. For a better decision he could say he could make, the billionaire technological mogul leading government efficiency pulled back the curtains to his time and slept in the White House in a group interview with Dozen journalists.
Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, is preparing to significantly reduce his role in leading the cost-cutting doge. Musks frequently existed in the White House during Trump’s first 100 days, and sometimes works in the president’s residence seven days a week in a building that oversees Doges, he said.
But moving forward, Musk said he hopes he will turn his attention to electric car company Tesla and spend about a day or two a week in Washington to tackle Doge’s issues and “every week every other week.”
“Now we are getting a lot more rhythm, so we need to spend much less time here and we can go back mainly to running my company.
“Doge is a way of life,” Musk says
Musk’s hour-long interview marked his most extensive remarks about the reporter’s room, along with occasional interviews with Fox News since launching Doge at the beginning of Trump’s second term. His role decline is the result of his increasingly polarizing brand as Trump’s chief sidekick after Tesla fell 71% in the first quarter revenues in the first quarter of 2025.
“I’m proud of the incredible work done by the Doge team. They take a lot of Flaks,” Musk said. “These are people who can easily get high-paid jobs in the private sector, and in fact, they came from high-paid jobs in the private sector.”
Musk said the role was “60% fun, 70% fun,” adding that it “weekly depends.”
“It’s not fun to be attacked relentlessly. It’s not fun to see a car burning,” he said.
And while he gets less in the White House, Musk said he expects to hold what he described as a small, one window office.
“There’s a view that it’s nothing,” Musk said. “It’s okay, it makes it difficult to shoot me. …Not a good gaze.”
But Musk said he has the largest computer monitor in the White House. He said he sometimes plays two of his favorite video games: Diablo and the Road of Exile.
The White House considers masks to be “special government officials” and has given them the title of senior advisor to the president. This is the role that allows you to get a job on 130 calendar days a year. However, it is unclear whether he will maintain the official title. “They don’t put anything on my cards,” Musk said. “Literally, there’s nothing on my card. It just says my name.”
When asked who on the Doge team would fill the gap, Musk replied, “Do Buddhism need Buddha?”
“Doge is a way of life,” Musk said on multiple occasions.
Musk says his trillion dollar target hasn’t changed
Top Doge aide and longtime musk loyalist Steve Davis is expected to take on a bigger role in operations.
Musk cites his company’s demands for a decline in his role, but he has become politically responsible for Trump, multiple polls suggest. Additionally, Musk thrusts his head with top management personnel, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and trade adviser Peter Navarro.
Musk said he is expected to cut $1 trillion from the federal government by next year after his recent remarks appeared to have dramatically reduced the benchmark to $150 billion. He made it clear that Doge is referring to the numbers he saved so far. He said it has now increased to $160 billion.
“I think it’s possible to do that, but there’s a long way to go…it’s really difficult,” Musk said. “That’s how much pain you know if the cabinet and this council can be willing to take? Because it can, but it needs to deal with a lot of complaints.”
He later admitted at another point in the interview that “I might not be successful.” He said “the government has a lot of inertia when it comes to cost savings.”
Musk touted recent efforts to cut down on Americans who are fraudulently receiving Social Security benefits through tweaks to government computer systems. A representative from Doge also said the group has discovered 57 voter fraud charges that they handed over to the Department of Justice for potential prosecutors.
“It’s not as effective as I would like.”
One of Doge’s most controversial actions is the systematic downsizing of the federal workforce through the voluntary acquisition of “Fork in the Road” and the end of its position.
Doge’s aide, who attended an interview with Musk, said hundreds of thousands of workers would eventually be cut by the federal government. They said 1% (about 20,000 workers) had been fired so far, but about 80,000 workers accepted a voluntary “forks on the road” acquisition.
Under the executive order signed by Trump on the first day of his presidency, Doge’s nearly 100-person employee team is expected to complete work in July 2026, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
When asked about his greatest regret, Musk said he likes to mention them, “A better decision may have been made thanks to the benefits of hindsight.”
“Of course, hindsight is 2020,” he said. “I think we were effective in the grand scheme of things. It’s not as effective as I would like. So we can be more effective, but we’ve made progress.”
X @JoeyGarrison and Francesca Chambers Reach Joey Garrison with @fran_chambers
