President Donald Trump’s chief of staff has issued a major update on Elon Musk’s role in the White House. In case you missed it, Musk has been a pretty central figure in the Trump administration since the start of the year.
As the president’s so-called ‘First Buddy’, Elon Musk has found himself taking part in cabinet meetings and making public appearances at the White House.
He’s also been busy hacking away at the federal budget in his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
There has been much speculation as to how long Musk will stay in this role, as he already has a busy work schedule running Tesla and SpaceX.
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And now it seems like he is slowly starting to take a step back from the government, with Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, sharing that Musk is no longer working from the White House.
In an interview with The New York Post, Wiles revealed that he is ‘not as present as he was’.
She added: “Instead of meeting with him in person, I’m talking to him on the phone, but it’s the same net effect.”
However, the Tesla boss doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
Wiles continued: “He’s not out of it altogether. He’s just not physically present as much as he was.
“The people that are doing this work are here doing good things and paying attention to the details.
“He’ll be stepping back a little, but he’s certainly not abandoning it. And his people are definitely not.”
While DOGE is not technically a government department, Musk is considered to be an ‘unpaid special government employee’, which means he isn’t allowed to work for the government for more than 130 days in a year.
In other news, Musk recently found himself at the center of ridicule after a clip of him attending a cabinet meeting went viral.
The video caught the attention of people on social media because of Musk’s notable fashion choice at the White House.
The billionaire was seen wearing a large red hat placed on top of a black hat on his head.
The hat on top read ‘the Gulf of America’, referencing Trump’s decision to attempt to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
The video shows Trump noticing Musk’s bizarre fashion statement, with him commenting: “Elon, I love the double hat, buddy. He’s the only one that can do that.”
And it’s Musk’s response that has a lot of people on X, formerly Twitter, cringing.
In reply, the SpaceX CEO said: “Well, Mr President, they say I wear a lot of hats and it’s true, even my hat has a hat.”