Where’s Elon?

The enigmatic tech billionaire was front and center during the 2024 presidential campaign and took a prominent role once President Trump took office. He attended Cabinet meetings, traveled aboard Air Force One, advised on key decisions, and even slept in the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom.

Elon Musk also featured in Mr. Trump’s social media posts and fundraising emails, with the president dropping Mr. Musk’s name often — about four times each week since taking office. He hit a high during the week of February 17, when he mentioned the world’s richest man 11 times, according to an analysis by Politico.

Yet in recent days, both Mr. Trump and his administration have pivoted away from highlighting Mr. Musk’s contributions, marking a noticeable shift in tone. The president has not mentioned the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency in a social media post since March 31.

Mr. Musk is, of course, a busy man. He serves as CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and the social media platform X, jetting around the world. Plus, his stint in the government was always going to be short — he worked as a “special government employee,” with his time limited to 130 days. He’s nearly reached that limit; it’s been 120 days since Mr. Trump took office.

The CEO also explicitly declared in late April that he would be “allocating far more of my time to Tesla,” which suffered a 20 percent drop in car sales in the first three months of the year, with profits falling 71 percent.

But there have been other factors that have emerged. Mr. Musk’s popularity has fallen steadily. By the end of April, just 35 percent of Americans said they approved of his job performance, while 57 percent said they disapproved, according to an ABC News poll. Mr. Musk also faced a string of vandalism attacks targeting Tesla cars and charging stations.

Mr. Musk has admitted that his first full-time foray into politics brought a steep learning curve. “It’s just been a very intense 100 days, where at times I was here full time. … I was here in D.C. seven days a week for some of the weeks in the beginning,” Mr. Musk said last month.

While he has had some wins with DOGE, he also has some losses dabbling in election politics. A significant blow came in early April during Wisconsin’s supreme court race, where Mr. Musk attempted to sway voters, including handing out $1 million checks to a lucky few. But the Musk-backed candidate, Brad Schimel, lost by 10 points despite receiving $21 million from the billionaire. 

For some, his decision to step back could not have come too soon, and a few critics have decided to speak up, albeit mostly anonymously. “He’s finished, done, gone. He polls terribly. People hate him,” one unidentified Republican operative told Politico. “He’d go to Wisconsin thinking he can buy people’s votes, wear the cheese hat, act like a 9-year-old. … It doesn’t work. It’s offensive to people.”

Senator Justice, a West Virginia Republican, went on the record to say that he thinks Mr. Musk overstepped his bounds. “We got too close to the fence. We mowed too far,” he said. “We just adjust. That’s the process that’s going on.”

Still, Mr. Musk has vowed to keep a thumb in the political pie, working on budget-cutting efforts a day or two a week. He also joined the president on a diplomatic trip last week to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. At one point, Mr. Trump said, “We all want to thank you for your help. You really have sacrificed a lot.”

His future in politics may be limited. While he said during a question and answer session with the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday that he is flying to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to have dinner with the president, he also said he plans to step back.

“In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Mr. Musk, who dumped $250 million on Mr. Trump’s campaign, said. A reporter asked why, and he said, “Because I think I’ve done enough.”

“Is it because of blowback?” the reporter asked. “If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don’t currently see a reason,” Mr. Musk said.