Key points
- Trump hands Musk a golden key to the White House
- Hails Musk’s “incredible service”
- “He’s going to be back and forth”, Trump says about Musk
ISLAMABAD: Billionaire Elon Musk bade farewell to Donald Trump in an extraordinary Oval Office appearance Friday, vowing to stay a “friend and adviser” to the US president.
According to AFP, as the world’s richest person bowed out of his role as Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief, the Republican hailed Musk’s “incredible service” and handed him a golden key to the White House.
Standing alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Musk, who faced a 130-day limit in his tenure as a special government employee that had ended two days prior, vowed that his departure “is not the end” of Doge, the Guardian reported. “The Doge team will only grow stronger over time. The Doge influence will only grow stronger. I liken it to a sort of person of Buddhism – it’s like a way of life,” he said. Trump was effusive in his praise of the world’s richest man, saying Musk “delivered a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington” and calling Doge “the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations”.
“Going to be back and forth”
“He’s going to be back and forth,” said Trump, according to AFP. Trump showered praise on the tech tycoon for what he called the “most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations.”
South-African born Musk, wearing a black T-shirt with the word “Dogefather” in white lettering and a black DOGE baseball cap, said many of the $1 trillion savings would take time to bear fruit.
“I look forward to continuing to be a friend and adviser to the president,” he said.
Musk’s DOGE led a drive slashing tens of thousands of jobs.
“$170 billion in savings”
The White House says DOGE has made $170 billion in savings so far. The independent “Doge Tracker” site has counted just $12 billion, while the Atlantic magazine put it far lower, at $2 billion.
Musk’s “move fast and break things” mantra was also at odds with some of his cabinet colleagues, and he said earlier this week that he was “disappointed” in Trump’s planned mega tax and spending bill as it undermined DOGE’s cuts.
Musk’s companies, meanwhile, have suffered.
Tesla shareholders called for him to return to work as sales slumped and protests targeted the electric vehicle maker, while SpaceX had a series of fiery rocket failures.
