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Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Politics, US News, JD Vance
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Politics, US News, JD Vance
Vice President JD Vance has revealed what will happen to DOGE after Elon Musk's departure and whether the Tesla CEO will continue to be an advisor to Trump.
On April 2, a report from Politico citing 'three Trump insiders' reported that while the president was pleased with Elon Musk's work as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), 'in recent days', both men had decided it would be time for him to 'step back'.
Musk's role in the government has been one of confusion - many unsure what his title actually is - the White House stating in February he's a 'senior advisor' to Trump, but the Tesla CEO elsewhere described as a 'special government employee'.
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Ultimately, any claims from inside the White House about Musk 'stepping down' were quickly squashed, Musk's position clarified as of a special government employee (SGE), in which the reality is his time has simply come to an end - SGE's work within the government not allowed to exceed 130 days.
But what is Musk set to do after, and what's the future of DOGE?
Well, Vance told Fox News: "Well first of all, that report I saw was total fake news. Elon came in and we said, 'We need you to make the government more efficient, we need you to shrink the incredible vast bureaucracy that thwarts the will of the American people but also costs way too much money', and we said, 'that's going to take about six months' - and that's what Elon signed up for."
Vance then confirmed 'of course,' Musk is 'going to continue to be an advisor' to Trump's administration.
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"And by the way, the work of DOGE isn't even close to done, the work of Elon is not even close to done," he continued.
He said: "You look at all of the fraudulent grants that they've found, you look at people 150 years old who are fraudulently collecting social security payments, you see our social security system - 40 percent of the people who are calling in are actually committing fraud, that means the 60 percent who neither social security checks are waiting in line - DOGE has got a lot of work to do."
Vance drilled down 'that work' will 'continue after Elon leaves,' resolving: "Fundamentally, Elon is going to remain both a friend and advisor of me and the president and he's done a lot of good things. People don't realise how vast and uncontrolled the bureaucracy was.
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"We've started to chip away at it but there's a lot of work to do - it's not all goign to happen in six months it's going to take a long and committed effort."