Elon Musk quietly gathered about a dozen senior Department of Government Efficiency aides inside his cramped White House office for Tesla-branded tequila during one of his final nights in the Trump administration, according to an upcoming memoir that portrays the gathering as an unrecognized farewell before Musk's political alliance with President Donald Trump publicly collapsed.
The account comes from former DOGE aide Tyler Hassen, who describes a West Wing operation confronting mounting evidence that its aggressive federal cost-cutting campaign was losing ground to new spending moving through Congress. Within days, Musk would leave the administration, attack Trump's spending agenda and enter an extraordinary public feud with the president.
According to an excerpt from Hassen's forthcoming memoir, Musk produced a lightning bolt-shaped bottle of Tesla tequila and poured drinks into plastic cups for his deputies. The gathering initially resembled an informal late-night celebration, but Hassen writes that the atmosphere deteriorated as aides absorbed developments elsewhere in Washington.
"Even great tequila couldn't mask the change in the room," Hassen recalled.
The mood reflected a broader problem confronting DOGE. Musk had entered the administration promising to attack government waste and impose the efficiency principles associated with his businesses, but Hassen describes aides watching lawmakers advance "billions in new spending" that appeared to reverse parts of their work.
The gathering also occurred on the same day that Musk reportedly had a heated confrontation with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The Treasury hasn't provided a detailed public account of the episode, and Hassen's memoir excerpt presents the confrontation from the perspective of a former DOGE insider.
For Hassen, the political reversals were taking a personal toll. He describes receiving messages from colleagues as reports about new spending and internal divisions accumulated, leaving his stomach "in knots and sweat forming as his enthusiasm for DOGE sank to its lowest point."
Musk's departure was followed almost immediately by a rupture with Trump that turned a disagreement over fiscal policy into a highly personal confrontation. Musk publicly called Trump's spending legislation a "disgusting abomination," arguing that it undermined the cost-cutting project he had pursued inside the administration.
The billionaire subsequently escalated the dispute by making an allegation linking Trump to unreleased Jeffrey Epstein files. The claim wasn't substantiated in the material provided and became part of a wider exchange of accusations between the two men.
Trump responded by saying Musk had gone "crazy" and describing him as a "big-time drug addict." The insults represented a dramatic reversal from the earlier relationship in which Trump had elevated Musk into one of the administration's most visible outside figures and placed him at the center of its government-efficiency initiative.
DOGE has since been wound down, ending an experiment that sought to bring Silicon Valley-style cost discipline into the federal bureaucracy. The White House hasn't publicly addressed Hassen's specific description of Musk's tequila gathering or confirmed the former aide's account of the atmosphere surrounding Musk's departure.
The rupture between Trump and Musk didn't permanently sever communication, according to Hassen. His memoir says Vice President JD Vance later helped mediate between the two men, opening the way for renewed contact after their public exchange.
Hassen further claims Musk subsequently accompanied Trump to a May summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. During that encounter, according to the excerpt, Musk told Trump "exactly what he wanted to hear" and pledged at least $100 million to help Republicans retain control of Congress in the November midterm elections.
The excerpt doesn't provide documentary evidence supporting the reported $100 million commitment. Neither the White House nor Musk is quoted in the supplied account confirming that such a pledge was made, making the episode dependent on Hassen's version of events.
If accurate, the reported reconciliation illustrates how quickly the political relationship changed after Musk's departure. The billionaire went from denouncing Trump's signature spending effort to re-engaging with the president after Vance's reported intervention, even as DOGE's original mission was being dismantled.
