Elon Musk stunned reporters on Friday by appearing at the White House with a visible black eye as he marked the end of his 130-day stint leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President Donald Trump.
The unexpected shiner — and his apparent rift with the POTUS — capped a turbulent tenure defined by sweeping promises, political fallout, and ambitious cost-cutting.
“Go ahead, punch me in the face”
The 53-year-old billionaire took the bruising in stride, joking with the press in the Oval Office.
“I’ve got a little shiner here,” Musk said after President Trump answered a Fox News reporter’s question about French President Emmanuel Macron being "slapped" by his wife.
“I wasn’t anywhere near France,” Musk added. “I was just horsing around with Little X, and I said, ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face,’ and he did.”
“Turns out even a five-year-old punching you in the face…” Musk said before trailing off.
President Trump, standing nearby, quipped: “X could do it… I didn’t notice it, actually.”
Musk’s bruised eye had already sparked speculation online, with users on X questioning, “What happened to Elon?” and “Why is his right eye black and blue?”
Trump presents Musk with a ‘golden key’
Despite the injuries — physical and political — Musk’s departure was marked with ceremony. Trump presented Musk with a large golden key, calling it a thank-you “from the country.”
The president said Musk was “not really leaving,” adding: “He’s going to be back and forth. I’ve got a feeling.”
Musk, dressed in a black “Dogefather” T-shirt and DOGE cap, told reporters: “This is not the end of DOGE, only the beginning. The DOGE team will only grow stronger over time.”
His official role had been limited by federal law to 130 days per calendar year. By Wednesday, his offboarding had begun, confirmed by the White House.
DOGE’s reality check
Musk entered government with lofty ambitions, pledging $2 trillion in federal spending reductions. At Friday’s press conference, he reiterated that colonizing Mars might be more realistic than making the government efficient.
“What do you think would be easier, colonizing Mars or making the government efficient?” a reporter asked.
“It’s a tough call, but I think colonizing Mars and making life multiplanetary is harder,” Musk replied, “We do expect to achieve, over time, the trillion-dollar savings.”
Yet, when Musk left, DOGE’s own website listed just $175 billion in savings — or roughly $1,087 per U.S. taxpayer. Still, House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed an additional $1.5 trillion in cuts were baked into Trump’s new One Big Beautiful Bill.
Fallout from ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’
Initially, Musk wasn’t celebrating. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO expressed disappointment in Trump’s $5 trillion bill, telling CBS News: “It undermines the work of DOGE… I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the legislation could add $3.8 trillion to the federal deficit over a decade. Musk complained the deficit was “going the wrong way” and warned the bill’s scope risked undoing the very efficiency DOGE had tried to build.
Trump avoided directly addressing Musk’s criticism, offering instead: “We will be negotiating that bill, and I'm not happy about certain aspects of it, but I'm thrilled by other aspects… The biggest thing being the level of tax cutting that we'll be doing.”
The bill includes tax breaks, stricter Medicaid work requirements, a $4 trillion debt ceiling hike, and mass deportation powers — but many provisions are temporary.
Personal and professional strain
Behind the scenes, Musk’s time in D.C. was marked by a reported rising tension. He clashed with White House officials, including calling trade adviser Peter Navarro a “moron,” and fumed over an Abu Dhabi-OpenAI deal that excluded him.
Tesla’s stock dipped, lawsuits mounted, and protests dogged his companies. One political candidate he backed in Wisconsin lost despite $25 million in campaign support.
Even Musk admitted the toll: “I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics,” he told Ars Technica. “It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side.”
He also told The Washington Post that the federal bureaucracy was “much worse than I realised,” and described DOGE as a “whipping boy” blamed for every failure.
Though Musk once promised $100 million in support for Trump-aligned PACs, the money never came. “I think I’ve done enough,” he said at an economic forum in Qatar.
Drug rumors and denial
Musk’s black eye wasn’t the only story swirling.
A New York Times report the same day claimed Musk was regularly using ketamine, ecstasy, Adderall, and psychedelic mushrooms — allegedly keeping a medication box filled with 20 pills. Musk sidestepped the topic at the press conference, instead railing against the newspaper.
Responding a question asked about Musk's drug use during his time in the White House, Musk replied: "Is the New York Times, is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russia-gate? Is that the same organisation? I think it is," he said, turning to Trump. "I think it is."
"I think the judge just ruled against the New York Times for their lines about the Russia-gate hoax and they may have to give back their Pulitzer Prize. That New York Times, let's move on," he said.
Once a fixture in Trump’s inner circle — seen aboard Marine One, at Mar-a-Lago, and even delivering Trump a Tesla on the White House lawn — Musk has gradually distanced himself from the MAGA orbit.
Musk shared a brief tweet earlier this week, saying: “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.
“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
However, prior to his departure, he did make a recent cameo at a Trump meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, backing Trump’s attack on land redistribution in South Africa — a hot-button issue Musk has previously spoken about.
Despite their diverging paths, Trump still hailed Musk’s contributions: “DOGE has installed geniuses with an engineering mindset and unbelievably talented people on computers,” Trump said. “I actually asked Elon one time, ‘What's their primary thing?’ And they have a lot of primary things all having to do with being smart.”