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Elon Musk donned one final casual and unconventional look – two Trump hats – while bidding a farewell of sorts to the president’s Cabinet.
Musk wore a red ‘Gulf of America’ cap over a black hat, presumably the dark MAGA one, to a meeting at the White House on Wednesday with President Donald Trump’s top advisers.
Trump complimented the billionaire, who is stepping back from leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
‘Elon, I love the double hat,’ Trump told him.
‘He’s the only one that can do that and get away with it.’
Musk replied: ‘Well Mr President, you know they say I wear a lot of hats, and as you can see, it’s true. Even my hat has a hat.’
He and Cabinet members laughed while seated at the table with more red-and-white and navy-and-white Gulf of America caps. Trump showcased the hat on Tuesday, holding a red one while walking to Air Force One to head to his 100th day celebratory rally in Michigan.
In his time as DOGE chief, Musk broke tradition in the West Wing, wearing a T-shirt under a suit jacket and a Trump hat to Cabinet meetings where everyone else dressed formally. In March, he wore a red cap with ‘Trump Was Right About Everything!’ embroidered in white. And in February, he sported a dark MAGA hat and a ‘tech support’ shirt.
During the more than two-hour meeting on Wednesday, Musk told Trump that it’s ‘been an honor to work with your incredible Cabinet’.
‘I would just like to say thank you to everyone, it was an honor to work with you, so thank you for everything,’ the Tesla chief executive and X owner said.
Musk claimed that DOGE has helped the federal government save $160billion through eliminating excess spending and positions. The figure is far less than the $1trillion goal initially set.
The world’s richest man added that a ‘tremendous amount has been accomplished in the first 100 days’ of Trump’s second term. He echoed Trump’s claims in his rally the night before.
‘As everyone has said, it’s more than has been accomplished in any administration before. Ever,’ Musk said.
‘So this portends very well for what happens, for the rest of the administration.’
Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Tuesday revealed that Musk is no longer working from the White House.
‘Instead of meeting with him in person, I’m talking to him on the phone, but it’s the same net effect. He’s not out of it altogether,’ Wiles told the New York Post.
‘He’s just not physically present as much as he was. He hasn’t been here physically, but it really doesn’t matter much.’
Wiles added that ‘he’ll be stepping back a little, but he’s certainly not abandoning’ his DOGE work, and that ‘his people are definitely not’.
Trump and Musk appeared to be back in friendly terms after a strain in their relationship, during which the president reportedly put a personal stop to him being at a highly classified meeting on China.
Musk’s time in the West Wing, which was limited by under his special government employee designation, was marked with numerous tense moments around DOGE’s recommended cutbacks and questions around his influence on Trump.
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