The spirit of DOGE will live on at the Trump administration despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk's departure, the White House says.

With Musk returning to the private sector, President Trump and his Cabinet will continue the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) cost-cutting work, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday. 

"The DOGE leaders are each and every member of the president's cabinet and the president himself, who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government," Leavitt said.

Musk says farewell

DOGE was the target of criticism practically every day during the first few months of Trump's second term, as Democrats, activist courts, and liberal media rallied against Musk's aggressive reforms to the federal bureaucracy. On his way out the door, Musk expressed frustration with the amount of backlash that "whipping boy" DOGE received, and the incremental pace of change.

“I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC, to say the least,” he told the Washington Post.

However, Musk was more upbeat during a farewell event Friday with President Trump at the Oval Office, where both men praised DOGE's legacy as historic and yet unfinished.

Trump heaped praise on his friend and close adviser, crediting DOGE as "the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations."

"Today it's about a man named Elon. And he's one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced," Trump said.

"He stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation."

DOGE "just beginning"

Thanking Trump for the chance to make a positive change, Musk likened DOGE to Buddhism, saying it is a "way of life" that will continue to permeate the government once he's gone.

"This is not the end of DOGE but really the beginning," Musk said.

That sentiment has been echoed by White House officials who say DOGE has been effectively embedded in the Trump administration.

A top White House official told Fox News Digital that the "DNA" of DOGE has been encoded across the federal government, making Musk's continued presence unnecessary.

Musk did not meet his ambitious target of saving $2 trillion, with DOGE reckoning $175 billion in savings to date. But Musk told reporters at the Oval Office that, over time, DOGE will recoup $1 trillion in savings for taxpayers.

While he is officially leaving government, Musk has said he plans to continue advising Trump informally, and Trump has said the same.