OAN Staff James Meyers
8:22 AM – Thursday, April 3, 2025
Elon Musk will be an ongoing “friend and adviser” to the Trump administration once his time at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is up, Vice President JD Vance announced on Thursday.
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The Tesla founder is expected to take a step back at the end of May given that his position with the Trump Administration was only ever meant to be temporary.
“Of course, he’s going to continue to be an adviser,” Vance told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” following reports in left-wing media outlets that Musk was stepping down.
“Fundamentally, Elon is going to remain a friend and an adviser of both me and the president — and he’s done a lot of good things.”
“Elon came in, and we said, ‘We need you to make government more efficient, we need you to shrink the incredible fat bureaucracy that thwarts the will of the American people but also costs way too much money,’” the veep continued.
“We said, ‘That’s going to take about six months’ — and that’s what Elon signed up for.”
Federal regulations allow Musk to remain in his post for 130 consecutive days as a special government employee.
However, left-wing outlets on Wednesday said the upcoming departure is evidence that President Donald Trump and Musk are having a falling out.
Blasting the reports as “fake news,” Vance vowed the work of DOGE would continue even after Musk left.
“The work of DOGE is not even close to done. The work of Elon is not even close to done,” he said. “DOGE has got a lot of work to do … that work is going to continue after Elon leaves.”
Last week, Musk acknowledged the 130-day limitation, saying in a separate Fox News interview, “I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that time frame.”
Additionally, he told investors in early February that he only expected to be working for the Trump administration for only four months.
As of now, Musk’s last day at DOGE is set for May 30th, which is exactly 130 days since Trump’s inauguration.
During his tenure Musk has made significant cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of Education, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Social Security Administration.
“You look at all of the fraudulent grants that they found,” Vance said Thursday as he praised Musk’s DOGE cuts.
“You look at people who are 150 years old who are fraudulently collecting Social Security payments. You see, our social security system, 40% of the people who are calling in are actually committing fraud. That means the 60% who need their social security checks are waiting in line.”
“People don’t realize how fast and uncontrolled the bureaucracy was. We started to chip away at it, but there’s a lot of work to do. It’s not going to happen all in six months. It’s going to take a long and committed effort,” Vance added.
“He’s got a big company to run … At some point he’s going to be going back,” Trump said of Musk.
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