Elon Musk said on Friday that while he is taking a step back from his role in the White House, the Department of Government Efficiency, which he helped spearhead, will continue to “grow stronger.”

Musk appeared alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office for a press conference on the end of Musk’s time as a “special government employee.” During the press conference, Trump praised Musk for his work with the DOGE team, and Musk said he would remain an adviser to the president.

“This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning,” Musk said. “My time as a special government employee necessarily had to end. It was a limited-time thing … but the DOGE team will only grow stronger over time. The DOGE influence will only grow stronger.”

“It is permeating throughout the government, and I am confident that, over time, we will see … a trillion dollars of waste and fraud reduction,” he added.

Musk, who will return to focusing more of his attention on his companies Tesla and SpaceX — and his mission to get humanity to Mars — added that DOGE still predicts saving the federal government over $160 billion for fiscal year 2025 to 2026. “And that’s climbing,” he said.

“I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job. They’re going to continue doing an incredible job, and I’ll continue to be visiting here and be a friend and adviser to the president,” Musk continued.

.@elonmusk: "This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning… The DOGE team will only grow stronger overtime… It is permeating throughout the government, and I am confident that, over time, we will see — a trillion dollars of waste and fraud reduction." pic.twitter.com/75XZ7ih8qg

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 30, 2025

Some of the government waste the White House said was uncovered by the DOGE team includes over $100 million “for DEI contracts at the Department of Education,” nearly $59 million “for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City,” $20 million directed to make an “Arab Sesame Street,” and $8 million for gender experiments on mice.

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Trump gifted Musk a golden key and called him “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced.”

.@POTUS presents @elonmusk with a gold White House key as a gift for his service as a special government employee. pic.twitter.com/vmpp3RcSTm

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 30, 2025

Musk recently grew frustrated over some of the obstacles in the way of cutting government waste and said he will dial back his spending on future political campaigns.

“I think I’ve done enough,” Musk said last week, adding, “If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I do not currently see a reason.”

Musk faced constant criticism from the Left and Democrats in Washington as he focused on searching for government waste to cut. After he became a senior adviser to Trump and pushed for major government spending cuts, Tesla has been targeted by leftist activists who have set fires to and vandalized vehicles and threatened Tesla dealerships.

Last week, Musk provided some more insight into his decision to step back from his White House role, writing on X that he believes “accelerating GDP growth is essential,” adding that he wants to do so with humanoid robots.

“I have come to the perhaps obvious conclusion that accelerating GDP growth is essential. @DOGE has and will do great work to postpone the day of bankruptcy of America, but the profligacy of government means that only radical improvements in productivity can save our country,” Musk wrote.

WASHINGTON — The former director of the National Portrait Gallery, who has been removed from her job, openly pushed diversity, equity, and inclusion from her position as head of a top United States museum.

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Kim Sajet was removed from her position, accusing Sajet of being “a highly partisan person” and “a strong supporter of DEI.”

“Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,” the president said. “She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Sajet, a long time Democrat donor, has served since 2013 as the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, which contains 1,700 portraits of United States presidents and is located less than a mile away from the White House itself. A review of her remarks to media show that she was heavily focused on promoting and highlighting art based on ideology.

“Are the categories sexist, ableist, racist?” Sajet said in one Washington Post interview as she discussed the National Portrait Gallery’s “language justice.” “How can we be respectful of communities that have been hurt and continue to be hurt? How do we be inclusive?”

Her LinkedIn profile described the National Portrait Gallery as “not just a place to see famous Americans,” but a place that “explores identity as a social construct that has been shaped in equal measure by opportunity & ability, prejudice & fear, by taking a cross-disciplinary approach.”

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She was also in charge of the gallery’s “America’s Presidents” exhibit with labels summing up each man in about 140 words. She told the Guardian in late 2024 that “we try very much not to editorialise,” claiming, “I don’t want by reading the label to get a sense of what the curator’s opinion is about that person. I want someone reading the label to understand that it’s based on historical fact.”

Yet the caption under Trump’s photo reads, in part: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials. After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”

(Photo by Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Sajet’s firing comes after Trump’s executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” a March 27 order that promised to “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness –- igniting the imagination of young minds, honoring the richness of American history and innovation, and instilling pride in the hearts of all Americans.”

“Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,” the order stated. “This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”

Sajet did not immediately respond to a request for comment.