(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – National AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement in response to the announcement that Elon Musk was leaving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - but also held a press conference with President Donald Trump, who said: “(Elon) will always be with us:”

Elon Musk didn’t get rid of any waste, fraud or abuse - he and DOGE were the waste, fraud and abuse, and they actually ended up costing taxpayers some $135 billion while firing thousands of Workers and cutting essential services people rely on.

Musk and President Trump have fired more than 260,000 of the Federal Workers who get us our Social Security checks, make sure our food and water are safe, care for our Veterans, provide disaster relief, conduct research on cures for deadly diseases, protect Workers’ safety, and mediate our Union contract negotiations.

These and so many other harms to Working People are outlined in the report released by the National AFL-CIO’s Department of People Who Work for a Living based on testimony from Workers and local Community Members at hearings across the country.  

If Musk is actually leaving DOGE, we celebrate that his departure is in large part thanks to the relentless organizing of Working People in the streets and in the courts to end this unelected billionaire’s control of our government.

Now Musk’s actions must be audited to see if he still has access to Federal buildings, Agency Staff or databases and systems, and he must be held accountable for removing or retaining any private data or using his unofficial leadership status in this Administration to make himself and his companies even richer. 

But the damage has already been done - and the threat to Working People doesn’t walk out the door with Musk.

President Trump’s other corporate billionaire Cabinet members still have outsize influence over our government and DOGE’s team of Musk loyalists is still free to steal our personal information and break government platforms.

And we anticipate that it will be just as harmful - if not worse - if radical Project 2025 Author Russell Vought takes over DOGE as rumored.

Vought has used his role as Director of the Office of Management and Budget to try to fire and strip Collective Bargaining Rights from thousands of Federal Workers as part of his campaign to “traumatize” them. 

The Department of People Who Work for a Living was created to get DOGE out of the government - and any step forward to send Musk packing is a victory for America’s Working Families and our Unions who fight for them.

The Labor Movement won’t rest until DOGE is fully gone and every harm it has caused to Federal Workers, essential government programs and the people who rely on them is reversed. 

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