Vance Shares Insight on Musk’s Role and Future After DOGE Speculation

Vice President J.D. Vance on Wednesday pushed back against reports suggesting President Donald Trump was dissatisfied with Elon Musk’s involvement in the DOGE initiative and that the billionaire might be preparing to exit the administration.

“First of all, that report I saw was total fake news,” Vance said during a Fox News appearance, responding to a Politico piece that alleged Trump had privately informed cabinet members that Musk would soon be “stepping back.”

Vance clarified that Musk had joined the administration as a special advisor for a temporary, six-month effort to improve efficiency and cut down on bureaucratic red tape. These advisory roles are capped at 130 days, ending sometime in late May or early June. Despite that, Vance emphasized that Musk’s input would continue to be valued even after the formal period concludes.

“We said that’s going to take about six months, and that’s what Elon signed up for, but of course, he’s going to continue to be an advisor,” the vice president explained, assuring that the DOGE mission would proceed regardless of Musk’s official capacity.

“The work of DOGE is not even close to done, the work of Elon is not even close to done,” he stressed.

Vance praised Musk’s impact so far, noting that he had helped crack down on “fraudulent grants” and had taken action against misuse within the Social Security system.

“DOGE has got a lot of work to do, and that work is going to continue after Elon leaves, but fundamentally Elon is going to remain a friend and advisor of both me and the president and he’s done a lot of good things,” Vance added.

Musk’s efforts to aggressively cut spending and scale back grant programs—particularly those backed by Democrats—have drawn sharp criticism from the left. In response, Tesla has become a target for protest, with reports of vandalism against the cars surfacing.

Some Republicans have reportedly grown uncomfortable with the controversy and have encouraged Trump to put distance between himself and Musk.

Nevertheless, insiders told DailyMail.com that any suggestion of a rift between Trump and Musk is “garbage” and simply “fake news.”

Musk seemed to reinforce that message by reposting the press secretary’s statement on X, adding his own response: “Yeah, fake news.”

A separate incident last month further muddied the waters when a fake audio clip surfaced, supposedly featuring Vance “criticizing” Musk. The recording quickly spread across social media, but Vice President Vance’s communications director, William Martin, dismissed it as AI-generated.

“Most certainly not the Vice President,” Martin wrote on X, linking to a post (since deleted) that had circulated the recording.

Vance also personally addressed the video on X: “It’s a fake AI-generated clip. I’m not surprised this guy doesn’t have the intelligence to recognize this fact, but I wonder if he has the integrity to delete it now that he knows it’s false. If not, it could be defamation. I guess we’ll find out!”

As AI-generated media becomes increasingly common, incidents of fabricated video and audio are escalating.

This particular clip had poor audio quality, with no credible source or explanation as to how a random account could have obtained such a private recording—something extremely unlikely for a sitting vice president.

The fake audio originally came from the TikTok user Joseiitalia, where it garnered 1.5 million views. It later spread to X, accumulating over 500,000 views, and appeared in multiple Reddit threads.

In the clip, the impersonator criticizes Musk by saying: “Everything that he’s doing is getting criticized in the media, and he says that he’s helping and he’s not, he’s making us look bad.”

The voice also complains, “he’s making me look bad,” and adds, “he has the audacity to act like he is an elected official. I am an elected official, I am the important one in this situation.”