Elon Musk has used his social networking platform X (formerly Twitter) to dismiss reports he is soon to leave his role as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Politico reported on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump has told Cabinet members that Elon Musk will soon be leaving the Trump administration.

Meanwhile NBC news also reported Wednesday that Trump had told Cabinet members last week that Elon Musk will leave his administration role in the coming months.

Musk departure?

Musk was originally expected to lead Doge until the summer of 2026.

But last week, Musk suggested he could be done with government by the end of May, while Trump on Monday told reporters, “I think he’s been amazing, but I also think he’s got a big company to run … And at some point, he’s going to be going back. He wants to.”

“I’d keep him as long as I could keep him,” the president reportedly said.

But Elon Musk has rubbished claims that his role in the Trump administration is coming to a premature end.

In a post on X, he decried as “fake news” the report by Politico, which said Trump had told confidants he expected Musk to leave as head of DOGE within weeks.

The White House confirmed that Musk would “depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work . . . is complete”.

Rising tensions?

Elon Musk is an unelected official, yet despite this he has attended multiple cabinet meetings, despite rising tensions among Trump officials at Musk’s chainsaw approach to cutting federal jobs, instead of the scalpel approach Trump has called for.

Last month the Daily Telegraph had reported on extraordinary confrontation at one of those cabinet meetings, where two two members of Trump’s administration allegedly clashed with Musk over DOGE’s lay-offs.

Sean Duffy, the department of transport secretary, was reportedly enraged by Musk’s attempts to cull air traffic controllers despite a national shortage.

Musk denied firing personnel that should not have been laid off, but according to the Telegraph Sean Duffy then slid a spreadsheet across a desk in front of the president, to allege Musk was not telling the truth about the scale of his cutbacks.

Meanwhile Doug Collins, the secretary of veterans affairs, also in front of Trump and Musk, reportedly claimed operations were being cancelled in Veteran Affairs hospitals because of Musk’s DOGE cuts.

Shortly that meeting, Trump imposed limitations of the power of DOGE, after he told his Cabinet secretaries that staffing decisions will be left up to them, not Elon Musk and DOGE.

But if the departments don’t cut enough staff, then Musk and DOGE will takeover the culling.