
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at President Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20. Trump has tasked Musk with main a workforce targeted on reducing prices within the authorities.
Chip Somodevilla/AFP through Getty Pictures
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Chip Somodevilla/AFP through Getty Pictures
Elon Musk has launched a marketing campaign from contained in the federal authorities to radically upend businesses, exercising a degree of management so sweeping that it’s beautiful former prime White Home officers, even in a political second when many issues are described as unprecedented.
Musk, the world’s richest man and an advisor to President Trump, is main a workforce referred to as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Regardless of the title, DOGE is a part of the White Home and never a Cupboard company. In current days it has gained access to the Treasury Division’s fee methods, that are liable for processing trillions of {dollars} of spending yearly.
The Associated Press reported DOGE representatives have additionally gained entry to labeled info on the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement, a decades-old overseas assist company Musk says he plans to shut down. And now, Musk’s cut-slashing unit is reported to be eyeing a technique to achieve entry to the methods of the Small Enterprise Administration, which supplies loans and assist to small corporations, in line with PBS Information Hour.
“President Trump takes enhancing authorities effectivity very significantly. Clearly, though it’s a humorous title, satirically, I believe DOGE could have a really severe and important impression on authorities waste and fraud and abuse, which is absolutely astonishing in its scale and scope,” Musk mentioned throughout a reside audio chat on his X platform on Sunday evening.
Musk framed his imaginative and prescient of DOGE’s work in ideological phrases, disparaging the “tyranny of the forms” as unaccountable to American voters. Later within the dialog, he referred to as for the “wholesale removing of laws.” Musk has a protracted historical past of sparring with and outright defying federal regulators who oversee his sprawling array of companies.
As DOGE officers transfer rapidly to get their arms on the interior workings of the federal authorities, Musk has been posting via it on X, the social media platform he owns, suggesting routine funds of the Treasury are violating the law and asserting that USAID is “a prison group” with out offering proof to assist these claims. Musk didn’t return requests for remark.
“Earlier than our very eyes, an unelected shadow authorities is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal authorities,” Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer said on Monday.
Musk, the most important donor within the 2024 election, has been using X to pounce on his critics, each Democrats and Republicans, who’ve questioned the attain of Musk’s authority and simply how a lot oversight he’s receiving from Trump and senior White Home officers.
“When it comes to rule of regulation, we’re shedding it quickly,” mentioned Eric Rubin, a retired ambassador who spent almost 40 years within the overseas service. “Musk and DOGE are deliberately creating lots of of potential courtroom circumstances that would take months or years to resolve,” he mentioned. “However who is aware of what sort of harm they’ll inflict earlier than that occurs.”
Safety clearances and employment standing
As Musk bores into huge elements of the federal authorities, his employment standing has precipitated confusion, which the White Home clarified on Monday. In accordance with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Musk is spearheading DOGE as “a particular authorities worker.” That is a brief appointment that permits an individual to work for not more than 130 days a 12 months to carry out “restricted” companies.
President Trump mentioned Musk can solely take motion when he has express approval from the White Home. “The place we expect there is a battle or an issue, we cannot let him go close to it,” Trump mentioned on Monday.

Protesters exterior of the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID) headquarters on Feb. 3, 2025 in Washington, DC. Elon Musk mentioned in a social media put up that he and President Trump will shut down the overseas help company.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures
Federal ethics consultants say since Musk operates six corporations that cross a number of industries, together with the rocket firm SpaceX and the electrical carmaker Tesla, it could be troublesome for him to keep away from working afoul of strict conflict-of-interest legal guidelines.
“He could not take part in any United States authorities matter that has a direct and predictable impact on his monetary holdings,” mentioned Richard Painter, who served because the White Home’s prime ethics lawyer beneath George W. Bush. “If he does, he commits a criminal offense,” mentioned Painter, pointing to federal laws governing particular authorities staff.
One thing else that has drawn scrutiny: what safety clearances Musk and different DOGE employees maintain.
A number of stories indicated DOGE representatives sought entry to a “safe compartmented info facility,” or SCIF, at USAID, which is a room containing delicate paperwork that solely somebody with a high-level safety clearance is permitted to enter.
“No labeled materials was accessed with out correct safety clearances,” Katie Miller, a DOGE official, wrote on X on Sunday. Leavitt mentioned on Monday she didn’t instantly have details about Musk’s safety clearance to share with reporters.
Rubin, the retired overseas service officer, mentioned the potential of a authorities worker accessing SCIF materials with out the right clearance is regarding, including that “there are zero exceptions” to the restricted entry, given these rooms include delicate materials.
Some younger engineers from Silicon Valley have joined Musk’s effort. That features Gavin Kliger, whose LinkedIn web page describes him as “particular advisor to the director” on the federal Workplace of Personnel Administration. Kliger attended the College of California, Berkeley till 2020. He labored as a software program engineer at Twitter in 2019 and, most just lately, as a senior software program engineer at Databricks, a knowledge analytics firm, in line with his LinkedIn profile.
A USAID.gov electronic mail tackle belonging to Kliger appeared on an electronic mail despatched early on Monday morning to USAID employees informing them the company’s Washington headquarters can be closed for the day. Kliger did not reply to NPR’s questions on his position at USAID or OPM.
A number of the first authorized challenges to DOGE’s actions got here on Monday.
The Alliance for Retired Individuals and two unions representing federal staff filed a lawsuit searching for to dam DOGE’s entry to the Treasury fee system, arguing that permitting Musk’s DOGE workforce to entry peoples’ tax refunds, veterans’ advantages and incapacity checks is an illegal privateness violation.
“We filed a lawsuit to say, ‘arms off,'” Norm Eisen, a former White Home ethics lawyer beneath former President Barack Obama, mentioned in an interview. “You possibly can’t have my knowledge. You possibly can’t have my partner’s knowledge. You possibly can’t have my child’s knowledge. That info is just too treasured,” mentioned Eisen, who’s representing the alliance and the unions. “That is mistaken. It is unlawful.”
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