Trump Says He Would Like to Keep Musk ‘for a Long Time’

Elon Musk, a special government employee leading DOGE, recently announced he will spend more time running his electric car company Tesla in May.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk shake hands in front of a Tesla Cybertruck, at the White House in Washington on March 11, 2025. Kevin Lamarque/File Photo/Reuters

President Donald Trump praised Elon Musk on April 23 after the SpaceX founder announced he would be stepping back from his time in Washington with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“I can’t speak more highly about any individual,” Trump told reporters. ”He’s an incredibly brilliant guy. He’s a wonderful person.”

As a special government employee, Musk has fewer than 130 days to work with the administration, as stated in Trump’s January executive order. He announced on April 22 that he would be taking a step back from his work in Washington to spend more time running his electric car company, Tesla.

“Starting next month, I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done,” Musk said during a call with investors.

The company has taken several hits recently, including a drop in stock price, a decline in car sales, and cars and dealerships becoming a target for protests, vandalism, and arson incidents. Musk previously said that his work with the Trump administration to audit federal agencies and reduce wasteful government spending caused those hits.

“What [protesters and vandals are] trying to do is put massive pressure on me, and Tesla, I guess, to you know … stop doing this,” he said.

Trump praised Musk for the work he’s done in weeding out over $160 billion in government spending waste, and said Musk was being treated unfairly.

“These were sick people that thought they were doing something,” Trump said, adding that Musk was a patriot and the damages that befell Tesla never should have happened.

“He loves the country,” Trump said of Musk. “He didn’t need to do this. He did it. And I told him, I said, you know, whenever you’re ready, I'd like to keep him for a long time, but whenever you’re ready.”

Musk said he is not stepping away from DOGE completely, adding during his call with investors that he would continue “to make sure that the waste and fraud that we stop does not come roaring back.”

The Department of Homeland Security announced on April 23 that it would be working with DOGE to overhaul aspects of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, in an effort to optimize its immigration-related database, and prevent exploitation by and of illegal immigrants.

“This overhaul eliminates fees for database searches, breaks down silos for accurate results, streamlines mass status checks, and integrates criminal records, immigration timelines, and addresses,” the DHS said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Automatic status updates and a user-friendly interface will empower federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal agencies to prevent non-citizens from exploiting taxpayer benefits or voting illegally.”

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.