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Elon Musk is leaving his position at the Department of Government Efficiency to focus on his businesses, including Tesla, SpaceX, and social media platform X, while remaining an advisor and close ally to President Donald Trump.President Trump said, "Elon has worked tirelessly, helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations." Musk initially promised to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, a goal later halved. "We can save by the middle of next year, with the support of the President and Congress, we can achieve a trillion dollars in savings," Musk said.As of today, DOGE's website lists savings at $175 billion.Todd Belt from George Washington University said, "Almost all of that was in labor, meaning these are people's jobs." The Hearst Television data team has tracked at least 49,000 layoffs across dozens of agencies, including the FDA, Veterans Affairs, and the Social Security Administration.Dan O'Connor from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said, "They're imposing this enormous burden on seniors without any real sense of what the benefit of that is." A new report from the center shows cuts to Social Security phone services will force nearly 2 million more in-person visits each year, with at least one in four seniors in 31 states having to drive over an hour round-trip.O'Connor added, "I think Elon Musk's legacy will have been that his time in government did not lead to improvements in government services or in people's lives." Despite the fallout, President Trump said, "We are totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent."Congress is trying to make some of those DOGE cuts permanent through the President Trump Tax and Spend Package, which Musk says undermines his work at DOGE because it adds to the deficit. President Trump, along with members of his cabinet, will now lead DOGE, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.Musk made a lasting impact on the federal bureaucracy, forcing out or dismissing thousands of employees. Key government agencies were gutted �� including the U.S. Agency for International Development, once a crucial source of aid for vulnerable populations worldwide. According to researchers at Boston University, the consequences have already been deadly, with estimates suggesting hundreds of thousands of lives lost due to these reductions.Musk had a bruise next to his right eye in the Oval Office, which he explained by saying he had been "horsing around" with his young son. "I said, go ahead, punch me in the face," he said. "And he did."