Trump Administration adviser Elon Musk says he’s stepping back from his government role following frustrations with federal bureaucracy.

Musk headed up the president’s efforts to cut jobs and reduce government waste under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

It’s all change at the top in Washington, with Elon Musk exiting the Trump administration.

For the last four months, Musk has seemingly been President Donald Trump’s right-hand man, becoming the man who wielded so much influence – and even a chainsaw – as he slashed government jobs.

His time in Washington has been tumultuous and highly disruptive. He’s overseen perhaps the largest and fastest government cost-cutting of any administration.

Purging the ranks of government employees, all in the name of trying to cut costs, reduce wastage, and streamline the federal government.

He dismantled the US agency for international development – USAID – the key agency for delivering much-needed aid to African nations in the space of just a few days and axed more than a quarter of a million government jobs.

Although he never quite achieved his promised $2 trillion reduction of the federal government budget, Musk announced his departure on X – writing that he would like to thank President Trump – “for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending”. He adds that the cost-cutting mission of the Department of government efficiency would “only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

The White House is now in the process of “offboarding” Musk.

His departure is not unexpected – he’s been working as a ‘special government employee’ – meaning he is only allowed to work in a federal position for 130 days a year, roughly the amount of time he’s been in his role since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.

The South African-born tech tycoon says he plans to spend more time focusing on his businesses and even acknowledged recently that he has perhaps neglected his Tesla and SpaceX enterprises. -Reporting by SABC Correspondent Nick Harper