Musk vows to stay Trump’s ‘friend’ in bizarre black-eyed farewell

WASHINGTON – Billionaire Elon Musk bade farewell to US President Donald Trump in an extraordinary Oval Office appearance on May 31, sporting a black eye and brushing aside drug abuse claims.

Mr Musk, the world’s richest person, also vowed to stay a “friend and adviser” as he bowed out of his role as

Mr Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief.

Mr Trump, a Republican, hailed Mr Musk’s “incredible service” and handed him a golden key to the White House.

However, he insisted that Mr Musk was “really not leaving” after a turbulent four months in which his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) cut tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered whole agencies and

slashed foreign aid.

“He’s going to be back and forth,” said Mr Trump, showering praise on the tech tycoon for what he called the “most sweeping and consequential government reform programme in generations”.

South-African born Musk, wearing a black T-shirt with the word “Dogefather” in white lettering and a black Doge baseball cap, said many of the US$1 trillion (S$1.29 trillion) savings he promised would take time to bear fruit.

“I look forward to continuing to be a friend and adviser to the President,” he said.

But many people were more interested in the livid black bruise around Mr Musk’s right eye.

Speculation about the cause was further fuelled by accusations in The New York Times on May 30 that Mr Musk used so much of the drug ketamine on the 2024 campaign trail that he developed bladder problems.

‘Punch me’

The SpaceX and Tesla magnate said that his son

was to blame for the injury.

Mr Musk, 53, said: “I was just horsing around with lil’ X, and I said, ‘go ahead punch me in the face. And he did. Turns out even a five-year-old punching you in the face actually is...”

However, he dodged a question about the drug allegations.

The Times said Mr Musk,

the biggest donor to Mr Trump’s 2024 election campaign,

also took ecstasy and psychoactive mushrooms and travelled with a pill box in 2024.

Mr Musk, who has long railed against the news media and championed his X social media platform as an alternative, took aim at the paper instead.

“Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate?” he said, referring to claims that Mr Trump’s 2016 election campaign colluded with Moscow.

“Let’s move on. Okay. Next question.”

Later in the day, when a reporter asked Mr Trump if he was “aware of Elon Musk’s regular drug use”, Mr Trump simply responded: “I wasn’t.”

“I think Elon is a fantastic guy,” he added.

The White House had earlier played down the report.

“The drugs that we’re concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border” from Mexico, said Mr Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, whose wife works for Mr Musk.

Mr Musk has previously admitted to taking ketamine, saying he was prescribed it to treat a “negative frame of mind” and suggesting his use of drugs benefited his work.

‘Disappointed’

The latest in a series of made-for-TV Oval Office events was aimed at putting a positive spin on Mr Musk’s departure.

Mr Musk is leaving Mr Trump’s administration under a cloud, after admitting disillusionment with his role and criticising the Republican President’s spending plans.

It was a far cry from his first few weeks as Mr Trump’s chainsaw-brandishing sidekick.

At one time Mr Musk was almost inseparable from Mr Trump, glued to his side on Air Force One, Marine One, in the White House and at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The right-wing magnate’s Doge led an ideologically driven rampage through the federal government, with its young “tech bros” slashing tens of thousands of jobs.

But Doge’s achievements fell far short of Mr Musk’s original goal of saving US$2 trillion.

The White House says Doge has made US$170 billion in savings so far. The independent “Doge Tracker” site has counted just US$12 billion, while The Atlantic magazine put it far lower, at US$2 billion.

Mr Musk’s “move fast and break things” mantra was also at odds with some of his Cabinet colleagues, and he said earlier this past week that he was

“disappointed” in Mr Trump’s planned mega tax

and spending Bill as it undermined Doge’s cuts.

Mr Musk’s companies, meanwhile, have suffered.

Tesla shareholders called for him to return to work as sales slumped and protests targeted the electric vehicle maker, while SpaceX had a series of fiery rocket failures. AFP