Billionaire Elon Musk will remain a friend and adviser to US President Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance, even after he leaves his role with the Department of Government Efficiency, Vance said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday.
Politico and ABC reported Wednesday that Trump had told members of his Cabinet that Musk would soon depart and return to the private sector. However, it was not clear if Musk would leave before his 130-day mandate as a special government employee expires around late May.
Asked about the speculation, Vance dismissed the report as “total fake news,” and asserted that Musk had only ever signed on for a period of several months, saying, “but of course, he’s going to continue to be an advisor [after that],” emphasizing the scale of the bureaucracy Trump aims to cut down.
The US vice president went on to assert widespread fraud in the social security system without providing evidence.
“DOGE has got a lot of work to do, and yeah, that work is going to continue after Elon leaves. But fundamentally, Elon is going to remain a friend and an adviser of both me and the president,” he said.
There has been growing unease across the US over Musk’s blunt approach to cutting tens of thousands of workers from the government workforce. Republican lawmakers have faced the wrath of angry voters at unruly town halls, while many of DOGE’s efforts have become the subject of lawsuits.
On Tuesday, a liberal judge in Wisconsin won an election to the state Supreme Court, easily defeating a conservative judge whose campaign had been heavily bankrolled by Musk and groups tied to him. The vote was seen as an early referendum on Trump’s presidency and Musk’s campaign to remake the US civil service.
In the interview, Vance also addressed Trump’s blanket tariffs — in whose wake markets have plunged on Thursday — as well as efforts to facilitate the sale of the Chinese app TikTok to American investors and a recent wave of deportations that have come under major scrutiny.
Vance was asked about the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to his native El Salvador despite a court ruling that he could not be sent there. The US government acknowledged an “administrative error” had led to the deportation to El Salvador, but has argued it doesn’t have to correct the mistake.
“In 2019, an immigration judge looked at all the evidence, looked at all the data, and concluded that this allegedly innocent person that we sent to El Salvador was actually a member of an MS-13 gang. He had also committed some traffic violations. He had not shown up for some court dates. This is not exactly father of the year here. This is a person that we don’t think should be in our country,” Vance said.
The US government has repeatedly asserted, based on confidential testimony from an informant, that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13. His lawyers have repeatedly denied that he has any gang affiliation and have pointed out that he had no criminal record in the US, which the government has not denied.