Steve Bannon Reveals The Moment 'Everything Changed' And Elon Musk Chose To Scale Back White House Role: Report

Elon Musk reportedly decided to scale back his role at the White House Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) following a denial by President Donald Trump of a secret briefing on China.

What Happened: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon described this as a pivotal moment for Musk, stating in an interview with The Atlantic magazine, “You could feel it. Everything changed. The fever had been broken,” referring to concerns about Musk’s influence within the federal government.

Notably, Elon Musk also reacted to The Atlantic report with a sad emoji on X possibly emphasizing a perceived bias in the media amid his high-profile role in DOGE.

Musk’s decision comes in the wake of Trump’s denial that the Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO would receive a confidential briefing on China. This denial was in response to a New York Times report in March suggesting that Musk was set to be briefed on potential US-China war details, a claim that Trump dismissed as “fake news” on his Truth Social platform.

“How ridiculous? China will not even be mentioned or discussed,” Trump had stated back then.

The report that Musk would be briefed on a potential US-China war sparked outrage among Democratic lawmakers, who raised ethical and national security concerns.

Bannon believed that officials leaking concerns about Musk to the media instead of addressing him directly or informing the president showed how much undue influence Musk held.

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Why It Matters: Musk’s diminishing role in the Trump administration has been a topic of discussion for some time now. Musk’s mentions in Trump’s speeches, social media posts, White House briefings and fundraising emails had seen a significant drop.

Musk, who was instrumental in DOGE’s push for major reductions across federal departments and agencies, recently stated that he intends to focus more on Tesla, SpaceX and X. Earlier this week, he also revealed plans to scale back his political contributions.

Nonetheless, Musk joined Trump on his recent Middle East trip and also sat with him and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during their meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday

Despite Musk’s reduced role, the White House has confirmed that DOGE’s mission “will surely continue.” Bannon, a long-time critic of Musk, once referred to him as a “techno-feudalist” because of his Neuralink project which as per Bannon amounts to “satanism with a brain chip.”