'Ice cream, Lincoln bedroom, video games: Elon Musk's 100 days in Trump admin amid reports of his White House exit

US President Donald Trump on Thursday (May 1) gave a warm send-off of sorts to his close friend and adviser, Elon Musk - whose term at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will come to an end this May. Trump thanked him for helping the US government save money through DOGE. Musk's departure from DOGE is necessitated by his limited term as a special government employee, which expires this month.

While videos from the event in which Elon Musk was seen wearing "Gulf of America" hat went viral, Musk also expressed his desire to work part-time for the DOGE. "I'm willing to contribute on average, one to two days a week... as long as the president wants me to do it," Musk said. "Obviously, if the president or the Cabinet has an emergency that they want me to respond to, then I'll do that," he added.

.@realDonaldTrump: "Elon, I love the double hat by the way."@elonmusk: "Well, Mr. President, you know they say I wear a lot of hats. Even my hat has a hat!" pic.twitter.com/iwlSpTDQVl

When asked at the White House by reporters as to who would fill his void when he leaves the administration, Musk said, "DOGE is a way of life, like Buddhism...Is Buddha needed for Buddhism?" "DOGE is kind of a way of life... we make converts all the time," he said, expressing confidence in the team's ability to sustain momentum.

In what felt like a farewell of sorts for Musk, the US President thanked him and  told his friend to stay at the White House till he wants. Trump said, "The vast majority of people in this country respect and appreciate you, and this whole room can say that very strongly; you have really been a tremendous help...And you know, you are invited to stay as long as you want." Trump also credited DOGE with saving the government money. "DOGE had ‘saved’ $150 billion," he said. 

Musk replied with a joke, "Well, they like to burn my cars, which is not great," referring to incidents where Tesla vehicles and locations were vandalised since he started working on DOGE.
 
Earlier, Musk had spoken about the hardships of working at DOGE. "It's like 60 percent fun, 70 percent fun. Depends on the week," he said. "Being attacked relentlessly is not super fun. Seeing cars burning is not fun." He compared the department to a "start-up", saying "things have been very intense."

In his remarks to reporters, Musk provided the most detailed overview of DOGE. Musk, who spent roughly a quarter billion dollars to fuel Trump’s White House victory last November, said his future work for DOGE would still be conducted from a tiny perch inside the West Wing, what he calls a “micro-office” with a window that offers just a “glimmer of sunlight” but no real view, Bloomberg reported.

“It has a view of nothing — it has a window but all you see is, like, an HVAC unit, which is fine because it’s harder to shoot me,” Musk told reporters in the Roosevelt Room. “There’s not a good line of sight.” Musk, who’s also the CEO of SpaceX, said.

Musk also offered an extraordinary glimpse into his status as a trusted Trump ally — one marked by occasional video games in his West Wing office as well as overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom, where he said he slept at Trump’s invitation. “We’ll be on Air Force One or Marine One and he’s like, ‘Hey do you want to stay over?’ I’m like, ‘Sure,’ and he sends me to the Lincoln Bedroom,” Musk recalled. “I haven’t requested it — to be clear.” 

With the president’s encouragement, Musk said he’s also gotten ice cream from the White House kitchen — eating “a tub” of rich caramel Haagen-Dazs  “Don’t tell RFK,” Musk quipped. Musing on the persistence of the name “DOGE” — now adopted by caucuses in the House and Senate — Musk reminded reporters the title started as a meme coin, as per Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Musk called out The Washington Post for reporting that Tesla is looking for a new CEO to replace him. tesla also released a statement saying that the report is "absolutely false."

It is an EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS that the @WSJ would publish a DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE and fail to include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors! https://t.co/9xdypLGg3c

Earlier today, there was a media report erroneously claiming that the Tesla Board had contacted recruitment firms to initiate a CEO search at the company.

This is absolutely false (and this was communicated to the media before the report was published).

The CEO of Tesla is…