Elon Musk is acting as a “special government employee,” according to the White House.
Critics claim that Musk’s SpaceX may have a conflict of interest because the company has secured billions of dollars in federal contracts.
Washington— Elon Musk is a “special government employee,” according to a White House official, working for the Trump administration.
With this status, Musk—the tech tycoon and ardent Trump supporter whom Trump has sent on a mission to reduce federal government spending—is neither a full-time employee nor a volunteer. The ethics and conflict-of-interest rules that special government employees must follow are usually less strict than those that apply to federal employees. Since they are temporary positions, they are exempt from certain of the disclosure requirements that apply to full-time positions.
Such personnel can work up to 130 days in a calendar year, according to a person acquainted with the position, and the days can be divided (for example, Musk could work half a day and it would only count as half a day).
After renaming the U.S. Digital Service as the U.S. DOGE Service and establishing DOGE inside the Executive Office of the President by executive order on his first day in office, Trump appointed Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
DOGE was mandated to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity” by the executive order to reorganize the U.S. Digital Service. Members of the DOGE team may comprise agency employees or recently hired temporary staff members who, like Musk, are classified as special government employees.
Critics claim that Musk’s SpaceX may have a conflict of interest because the company has secured billions of dollars in federal contracts.
“More than 130 days during any period of 365 days” is the maximum number of days that special government employees are permitted to work annually, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
Trump stated on Monday that Musk won’t always get his way and that his DOGE wouldn’t take any action without the White House’s consent.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “Elon can’t and won’t do anything without our approval, and we’ll give him the approval where appropriate; where not appropriate, we won’t.” “He reports in. … But he does have a good natural instinct.”
“Nothing polls higher than cutting government spending,” Musk, the richest man in the world, wrote on Monday on X, his social media platform, highlighting what he claims is the political benefit of doing so.
In remarks made in the early hours of Monday, Musk criticized international aid expenditures, calling the U.S. Agency for International Development a “crazy waste of money” and claiming that he and Trump are “in the process” of closing the organization.
DOGE has already claimed credit for its extensive cuts, which include more than $40 billion to support foreign aid, $1 billion in contracts relating to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and $44.6 million in lease terminations for underutilized structures.