Elon Musk, who officially ended his role as a senior adviser in the Trump administration on Friday, sought to distance himself from President Trump’s actions during an interview aired Sunday. Speaking with CBS News’s Sunday Morning, Musk made it clear that while he supports some of Trump’s policies, he doesn’t want to be held accountable for the entirety of the administration’s agenda.
“I don’t want to take responsibility for everything this administration is doing,” Musk said, striking a careful but unmistakably critical tone. Though he refrained from naming specific disagreements, he acknowledged that there are decisions and actions taken by the Trump White House that he doesn’t support.
“It’s not like I agree with everything the administration does,” Musk said. “I agree with much of it, but we definitely have our differences.” He added that openly voicing his disagreements might become “a bone of contention,” signaling that he was reluctant to create friction but was also no longer willing to stand silently behind all Trump policies.
The remarks come just days after Musk stepped down from his post as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an agency he oversaw for several months with a mandate to slash federal spending and reduce the size of the government workforce. During his tenure, Musk implemented sweeping reforms across multiple departments, earning both praise and criticism for his aggressive cost-cutting measures.
Despite his departure from the official position, Musk said he would remain available to advise Trump if asked. However, his comments suggest a shift in tone and perhaps in political alignment as he publicly carved out space between himself and the president he had previously supported so closely.
Musk’s statements are already being interpreted by some as a subtle form of throwing Trump under the bus, signaling that he does not want his legacy tied too tightly to the more controversial or unpopular aspects of the administration’s record.
As one of the highest-profile business leaders to join Trump’s second-term inner circle, Musk’s growing discomfort with the political fallout from certain decisions may reflect wider concerns among some of the president’s former allies. His attempt to walk a fine line advising when necessary, but refusing full ownership of the administration’s actions could mark the beginning of a larger effort to reposition himself as independent of Trump’s more polarizing moves.
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