News broke in the early hours of this morning that Donald Trump's right-hand man, Elon Musk, has resigned from his Republican administration.
The shock revelation comes five months after the tech boss was made one of Trump's Department of Government Official co-leads - a role that handed him the responsibility of cutting excessive spending by the federal government.
In doing so, however, he axed thousands of government and civil positions.
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Musk spent his first few months co-leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by flexing his new power to circumvent conflict of interest/transparency requirements, which subsequently saw him accused of planning a 'hostile takeover' - a claim he denied.
Trump, 78, previously supported the Tesla CEO's role with gushy social media statements and public speeches about his success, with left-leaning voters fearing the political and financial power that the pair boasted.
More recently, however, their relationship has appeared to become increasingly fragmented.
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Earlier this month, Musk appeared to be throwing shade at Trump's overspending, vowing during an interview with Bloomberg's Mishal Husain: "I think, in terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future. I think I've done enough."
The shock decision for Musk to leave the Trump administration, however, was announced last night (28 May).
Taking to X, the billionaire thanked the right-wing leader for the opportunity.
"As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending," he wrote.
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"The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government."
The ultimate reason for Musk's departure was later alluded to in another tweet that he reposted on his own profile, indicating that friction between he and Trump was very much real.
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Shared by an account named @cb_doge, the follow-up tweet read: "In the coming days, legacy media will try to convince you that President Trump and Elon Musk are no longer friends and that’s why Musk left."
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The damning statement continued: "What they won’t tell you is that Elon was a Special Government Employee, limited to 130 days of service and that term ends tomorrow."
The father-of-13's departure came one day after admitted to being 'disappointed' by Trump's backing of a bill which is expected to increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion by 2034, telling press said legislation 'undermines the work' that his team 'is doing'.
The 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' would extend the president's tax cuts and increase border security spending, among several other aims.
"I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk confessed on Tuesday during an interview with CBS.
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"I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both. My personal opinion."
Discussing his role after being asked a question by the Washington Post, Musk continued: "DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything. Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it."
He went on to confess: "'The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realised.
"I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least."
Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, US News, Politics
Rhianna Benson