Elon Musk in Wisconsin on Sunday. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)Elon Musk will start “stepping back” from the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency in the coming weeks, Politico reported Wednesday. Politico’s sources say that President Trump still likes Musk and thinks he’s b een doing a good job (validation that will hopefully prevent Musk from locking himself in his office at X headquarters, prompting employees to consider calling police for a wellness check) but worries that the billionaire’s roaring chainsaw of a presence—loud, destructive, and should he really be holding that thing anyway?—is starting to damage the administration’s popularity. As a “special government employee,” Musk’s tenure is not supposed to eclipse 130 days in the first place—which would put his departure around the end of May. At first, this impermanence seemed generally accepted among the MAGA coalition. “I say this with all humor,” Vance said in February to a crowd at the Munich Security Conference, brilliantly demonstrating the best way to set up a joke. “If American democracy can survive ten years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.” (God, that makes sense and is funny!) But in recent months, Trump advisers have shrugged off that 130-day cap, telling Politico that the White House didn’t plan to enforce any limits on Musk. “No one here at the White House is tired of winning,” deputy press secretary Harrison Fields told Politico at the time. Certainly not in Wisconsin. Does this mean that the DC area’s many federal employees can soon head to work without fear that Big Balls and Co. will be posted at their agency’s door? Is there a world on the horizon where the ping of an incoming email fails to Pavlov civil servants into thinking they’re about to get laid off without back pay? Is our city finally ready to sacrifice free yoga classes for job security? Will Musk scurry back to Silicon Valley and never again flirt with the notion of buying one of our boutique hotels? Probably not. One administration official told Politico that Musk will likely stay in Trump’s loop as an informal adviser. Insiders tell ABC News that reports of Musk’s ousting are “overblown.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warmly described the Politico story as “garbage” in an X post, writing, “Elon Musk and President Trump have both *publicly* stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.” Amid some indications that DOGE’s operations are winding down, Vance told Fox & Friends Thursday morning that Musk will remain a “friend and adviser” to the administration after DOGE wraps up. But the agency is not officially set to be dissolved until July 4, 2026—the country’s 250th birthday. It would, however, be awfully efficient for Musk to finish his work more than a year in advance.The post Is DC’s Elon Musk Nightmare Coming to an End? first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less