A wave of departures is making the midterm outlook even tougher.

Elon Musk returned to the White House Tuesday in a sign that tensions between President Donald Trump and the world’s richest man have thawed since a fierce split over deficit spending earlier this year fractured their once-cozy relationship.

The White House is ordering federal employees back to work Thursday, as the government reopens following a historic shutdown that furloughed about 600,000 federal employees, shuttered offices and froze billions in salaries and payments.

The backlog of work could take federal employees weeks to resolve.

The longest government shutdown in US history has ended, but it could take days — and in some cases a week or more — before normal operations resume.