Elon Musk Leaves the White House: 129 Days of Chainsaws and Memes

The Elon Musk era has officially ended at the White House—if you can call four months packed with as many memes as scandals an “era.” The world’s richest man, and at the same time the global supplier of electric cars and cosmic disappointments, is wrapping up his term at the enigmatic Doge agency (Department of Government Efficiency). He promised to save $2 trillion, then $1 trillion, then $150 billion—in the end, Doge claims they saved $175 billion. However, a modest BBC analysis occasionally finds that the numbers, like Musk’s tweets, don’t always line up with reality.

To cut costs, Musk armed himself with a chainsaw and the well-known principle “better safe than sorry”: rotations affected 260,000 civil servants, including those guarding the American nuclear arsenal. Mistakes? Of course! After all, confusing Mozambique with Gaza when trimming aid programs is already a signature style. The main thing, Musk admits, is to act fast and not be afraid to correct mistakes. Sometimes, though, courts had to be convinced that mass layoffs were nothing personal—just business.

It also turned out that “blurred lines between business and politics” are not only part of a business lunch in Washington, but also a daily reality. SpaceX feeds on government contracts, Starlink conquers satellite space, and Tesla electric cars proudly pose on the White House lawn, escaping falling sales at least with pretty photos. Suspicions of conflict of interest? Trump and Musk just shrug: if your son’s name is X Æ A-12, what ethics are we even talking about?

There were international sensations as well. Eighty percent of USAID programs went under the knife, including kitchens for Sudan, educational grants for Afghan women, and clinics for transgender people in India—“America First,” and the rest as it happens. The world was a bit surprised: US soft power turned out to be even softer than expected.

The picture was completed by spectacular conspiracy theories: from the gold reserves at Fort Knox to the notorious “genocide” of whites in South Africa, which Musk hastened to report to the entire Oval Office. The Cabinet, however, preferred to listen in silence—just as they did when discussing Trump’s big, beautiful budgets, in which Musk’s savings dissolved faster than Dogecoin after another of his tweets.

Now Trump promises: “Musk will always be with us… helping everyone!”—which sounds ominous for anyone who hasn’t yet resigned voluntarily. As for us, we’ll say: it was a fun term. Thank you, Elon! Next, please.