- Elon Musk’s work with DOGE has dominated political discourse in recent weeks.
- Early in Trump’s second term, Musk has become a fixture in Washington.
- One of Musk’s private jets recently left the DC area for the first time in weeks.
A Gulfstream jet owned by Elon Musk, who is these days mostly busy with his work at the Department of Government Efficiency, has left the Washington, DC area for the first time since President Donald Trump’s January inauguration.
That’s according to data provided by Jack Sweeney, who tracks the private planes of high-profile figures like Musk and music megastar Taylor Swift.
Flight information shows one of Musk’s jets leaving Washington-Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Friday and traveling to Austin.
In recent years, Texas has become the home base for the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive. It’s unclear if Musk himself was on the jet that left the Washington area.
Business Insider has reached out to Musk for comment.
Sweeney told Business Insider that it’s unusual for Musk’s jet to be in one place for such a long period.
“It might be possible that he left DC and flew on someone else’s plane, which I don’t know,” Sweeney said. “But, obviously, he’s been focused on the government.”
Musk has become the face of Trump’s efforts to shrink or eliminate government departments and agencies by focusing on their spending and finding efficiencies that could save taxpayer dollars.
The tech mogul has set his sights on the United States Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Education, among other departments, as he aims to reduce spending across the board.
Some Democratic lawmakers have questioned whether Musk has a conflict of interest given federal contracts that his company, SpaceX, has previously received.
Others have raised concerns about the young DOGE staffers who largely lack government experience. Last week, 19 Democratic state attorneys general sued Trump for giving DOGE access to sensitive, personal information at the Treasury Department.
Musk hopes to cut at least $1 trillion in spending and has said that cutting $2 trillion in spending is the “best-case outcome.”
