Elon Musk gets White House send-off from President Trump

President Donald Trump held a press conference Friday with Elon Musk to mark Musk’s departure from the White House. 

Musk, co-founder and leader of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company, is leaving his job as a senior adviser after he revealed his plan to curtail political donations and criticized the centerpiece of Trump's legislative agenda.

"This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Thursday. "Elon is terrific!"

It’s a quiet exit for Musk after a turbulent entrance: His work at the Department of Government Efficiency led to thousands of federal workers being indiscriminately laid off or pushed out — hundreds of whom had to be rehired — and some federal agencies were eviscerated.

RELATED: Elon Musk leaves Trump administration after slamming ‘big beautiful bill’

What happened? 

Trump began the joint news conference by playing what appeared to be a news report touting the latest government budget cuts before going into a lengthy speech about tariffs.

The president moved on to how Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) "found things that were unbelievably stupid and unbelievably bad." 

What they're saying:

"I just want to thank Elon for his time as a special government employee. Can you imagine? They call him an employee, but it's a special government employee. And for coming and helping us. And he really has changed the mindset of a lot of people. A lot of people thought, you know, maybe we'll cut 1% or 2% or 3%. Then they said, well, we can cut a lot more than that, and we're going to do it very surgically. We're going to continue on the march, we're making America great again," Trump said.

Trump also gave Musk a gift that the president said he only gave "to very special people."

Musk explains his black eye 

A reporter present at the news conference inquired about Musk's black eye, and the reason was pretty innocuous. 

"I just was just horsing around with, little X. And I said, go ahead, punch me in the face. And, he did. And turns out even a five-year-old punching you in the face. Actually, does this," Musk said. 

Why is Musk leaving the White House? 

Dig deeper:

Musk's position was always designed to be temporary, and he had previously announced his intention to dedicate more of his time to his companies. Musk’s association with right-wing politics damaged Tesla’s brand and tanked sales. The advertising base for Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter, also needs to be rebuilt, and while SpaceX appears to be financially promising, it has seen some recent setbacks. 

RELATED: Only about one-third of American adults have a favorable opinion of Elon Musk

What they're saying:

Musk, however, told reporters last month that he was willing to work part-time for Trump "indefinitely, as long as the president wants me to do it."

How much has DOGE saved? 

The backstory:

During a campaign rally in October, Musk said he could find "at least $2 trillion" in spending cuts. In January, before Trump was inaugurated, he revised by saying, "if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting one."

RELATED: Musk’s SpaceX frontrunner to build Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system: report

But in April, at a Cabinet meeting, Musk provided a different target. He was "excited to announce" that they could reach $150 billion in savings during the current fiscal year. Even that goal may not be reached.

By the numbers:

According to the Musk Watch Doge Tracker, a website that verifies what Musk has actually cut versus what he’s claimed to cut, Musk is leaving the White House with claims of $165 billion in savings. But only $16.3 billion of that money has been confirmed as canceled funding, leaving $148.7 billion in alleged savings – or 90% – unverified. 

The other side:

"They made some changes without really knowing what they were doing," Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies for the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, told The Associated Press. "There were a lot of unforced errors … they set themselves up for failure."

Elon MuskDonald J. TrumpPolitics