In Musk, an unprecedented blend of political and financial power
When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held his first official meeting in Washington last week, he brought his foreign minister and security adviser. The U.S. official he was meeting with, Elon Musk, brought three of his children and the mother of two of them. At the end, the two men exchanged gifts; Mr. Modi distributed books to the children.
The family-style sit-down with Mr. Musk, the owner of SpaceX and chief executive of Tesla, preceded Mr. Modi鈥檚 bilateral meetings with President Donald Trump and senior Cabinet members. Asked by reporters whether Mr. Musk had been acting in a private or official capacity, 鈥淭hey met, and I assume he wants to do business in India.鈥�
Blurred lines and proximity to power have become hallmarks of Mr. Musk鈥檚 virtual takeover of Washington. Over the past month, the tech billionaire who leveraged his wealth and fame to help reelect Mr. Trump has become perhaps the most prominent, prolific, and feared figure in his administration. His self-styled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) within the White House has taken an axe to a swath of federal agencies and to the government鈥檚 professional workforce.
Why We Wrote This
President Trump credits Elon Musk with leading efforts to disrupt, shrink, and overhaul the federal bureacuracy. Mr. Musk has major business interests intertwined with the very government he is remaking.
Mr. Musk鈥檚 precise role is amorphous. On paper, he鈥檚 an unpaid adviser to Mr. Trump and has no legal authority over DOGE, which was originally billed as an outside commission providing recommendations. In reality, he鈥檚 emerged as the president鈥檚 indefatigable attack dog, propagandist, and auditing specialist. Analysts say there鈥檚 no precedent for such an unelected individual to sit at the nexus of power and politics with a mandate to orchestrate a sweeping makeover of how government works. Some Democrats have chided Mr. Musk for acting as 鈥渃o-president,鈥� a calculated jibe at the elected president he serves.
In an unusual joint appearance on Fox News that aired Tuesday, the two men rebutted this criticism. Mr. Musk began by telling host Sean Hannity that he loved the president and that he is 鈥渁 good man.鈥� Mr. Trump thanked him and called him a 鈥渂rilliant guy.鈥� Both laughed at jokes made by the other; Mr. Hannity likened them to brothers. When the host brought up criticism of 聽imagery used by Time magazine, Mr. Trump jumped in. 鈥淓lon called me. He said, 鈥榊ou know they鈥檙e trying to drive us apart.鈥� I said 鈥榓bsolutely.鈥欌��
鈥淗e adds a manic energy鈥�
Mr. Musk insists that his role is simply to ensure the elected president鈥檚 orders are fully implemented by the federal bureaucracy. 鈥淪o what we鈥檙e doing here, one of the biggest functions of the DOGE team, is just making sure that the presidential executive orders are actually carried out,鈥� he told Mr. Hannity.
Mr. Musk has taken to his mission with gusto, sleeping at work and hiring young workers with a Silicon Valley startup mindset to disrupt the slow-moving, deliberative process in public institutions. On the disruption front, supporters and critics alike agree, he鈥檚 succeeding.
鈥淭he extra sauce that he brings is the optics of doing things very, very quickly, and shockingly. He鈥檚 clearly uninterested 鈥� about the legal consequences of doing things鈥� that may violate norms or even the Constitution, says Thomas Pepinsky, a professor of government at Cornell University who studies political economies.
Mr. Musk also eschews any fear of failure or political blowback that would typically constrain politicians in his position, says Gary Gerstle, an emeritus professor of American History at the University of Cambridge. This clashes with a culture of public administration that discourages risk-taking. Mr. Musk himself has said he and his team are likely to 鈥渕ake mistakes鈥� but that when they do, they will try to correct them.
鈥淗e adds a manic energy and a single-mindedness that has been characteristic of all his endeavors, and also his deep belief that you鈥檝e got to break things in order to fix them. That鈥檚 his business model 鈥� never being afraid to blow up rockets in search for the right rocket,鈥� Professor Gerstle says.
Some misleading claims of uncovering fraud
Much of DOGE鈥檚 agenda maps onto Project 2025, a plan of action drawn up by conservative groups allied with Mr. Trump to shrink the federal bureaucracy and greatly enhance presidential authority. During the campaign, Mr. Trump publicly distanced himself from the document.
Acting alone and with other White House staff, DOGE has dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and forced the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, and other major agencies to allow access to closely guarded databases, while pushing for personnel restructuring and layoffs. It claims to have already , though documents posted by DOGE suggest this amount may be greatly exaggerated. Mr. Musk has said that layoffs and artificial-intelligence-based fraud audits will help close the federal deficit, currently $1.8 trillion a year.
Many of Mr. Musk鈥檚 misleading or outright incorrect claims have become talking points for Mr. Trump. Last week, Mr. Musk claimed that his team had uncovered millions of Social Security recipients more than 100 years old, including some as old as 150, which 鈥�.鈥� Experts quickly countered that that didn鈥檛 have certified death information for people born before 1920, something auditors already knew about, and not evidence of claims being processed for deceased recipients.
But Mr. Trump has continued to repeat these claims, telling a Saudi-backed investment summit in Miami on Wednesday night about millions of purported Americans over the age of 100 receiving government checks.
Firing ... and hiring workers back
DOGE has drawn considerable criticism for its haphazard dismissals of federal employees to meet reduction targets without apparent consideration of impacts. Nuclear inspectors were laid off, then . This week the Department of Agriculture working on the federal response to bird flu.
Mr. Musk鈥檚 lightning strikes have also triggered numerous lawsuits. One, filed by 14 Democratic state attorneys general, argues that he lacks the constitutional authority to resize the government since he isn鈥檛 a Senate-confirmed officeholder. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Washington, Tanya Chutkan, from firing workers at federal agencies, saying they couldn鈥檛 prove irreparable harm.
But Judge Chutkan wrote that the plaintiffs were right to question 鈥渨hat appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight.鈥� In a filing to the court, a White House official stated that, contrary to plaintiffs鈥� assertions, Mr. Musk and doesn鈥檛 even work there but was simply a 鈥渟enior advisor鈥� to the president.
鈥淟ike other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself. Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President鈥檚 directives,鈥� the White House wrote.
Analysts say the legal ambiguity around Mr. Musk, whom Mr. Trump repeatedly praises for his leadership of DOGE, adds to the confusion over its secretive work inside agencies. Pushback by Congress has been noticeably lacking, because Republican lawmakers both mostly support DOGE鈥檚 cost-cutting goals and are reluctant to cross Mr. Trump and risk a primary-election challenge.
The passivity of Congress is striking when DOGE is dismantling agencies whose budgets have been appropriated by lawmakers, says Andrew Rudalevige, a professor of government at Bowdoin College who studies executive orders. 鈥淚f they wanted to cut spending on foreign aid, if they wanted to reorganize the executive branch, if they wanted to slash government employment, those are things you do in law,鈥� he says.
This controversy has shone a spotlight on Mr. Musk and DOGE, by Mr. Trump last week to oversee hiring and firing at key agencies. Legal scholars say DOGE鈥檚 access to government databases that had been walled off to political appointees appears to violate the 1974 Privacy Act passed after Watergate. Most of the lawsuits filed against DOGE have cited the act鈥檚 protections.
Multiple conflicts of interest for Musk
As a federal contractor and businessman whose companies are regulated by government agencies, Mr. Musk has multiple conflicts of interest when it comes to DOGE鈥檚 cost-cutting agenda, as well as the White House鈥檚 domestic and foreign policies. For example, his company SpaceX is a major contractor to the Defense Department and NASA, whose budgets and personnel Mr. Musk is slashing. SpaceX is also under multiple for its labor practices.
Mr. Trump has waved away these concerns. Last week he told reporters in the Oval Office, in front of Mr. Musk, that 鈥渨e would not let him do that segment or look in that area if we thought there was a lack of transparency or a conflict of interest.鈥�
Sources: The New York Times, Reuters, The Associated Press, and federal agencies
It鈥檚 a criminal offense for federal employees to participate in any government decisions that could have a direct impact on their personal finances, such as a business deal or contract, says Richard Painter, the former chief ethics officer for President George W. Bush. Advisers to the president must also file a disclosure statement about their holdings.
The White House says Mr. Musk is a 鈥渟pecial government employee,鈥� a temporary position that applies to those who work for 130 days or less during a year. This designation means that Mr. Musk鈥檚 disclosure statement isn鈥檛 required to be made public until eight years after the president leaves office, unlike full-time government officials.
Special government employees typically serve on advisory commissions and bring specialist knowledge, says Professor Painter, who now teaches law at the University of Minnesota. 鈥淚 never saw someone like Musk do what Musk does,鈥� he says, calling the situation 鈥渋nappropriate.鈥�
In its filing, the White House compared Mr. Musk to Anita Dunn, a political consultant hired by President Joe Biden as a special employee. Ms. Dunn eventually joined the White House as and was required to disclose her assets and recuse herself from related decisions.
Another point of comparison, says Professor Rudalevige, is Jack Smith, the special prosecutor appointed by the Department of Justice to handle Mr. Trump鈥檚 criminal cases. Mr. Trump鈥檚 lawyers persuaded one judge that Mr. Smith鈥檚 actions were illegitimate because he hadn鈥檛 been confirmed by the Senate. 鈥淎nd yet here we have Mr. Musk, who is apparently just a temporary White House employee, bragging about feeding agencies into wood-chippers,鈥� he says.
Will courts be a check on DOGE?
Like the president he serves, Mr. Musk is often dismissive of courts that rule against him. 鈥淎 corrupt judge protecting corruption. he wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, after a court temporarily blocked DOGE鈥檚 access to Treasury databases.
On Saturday, Mr. Trump that 鈥淗e who saves his Country does not violate any Law.鈥� He later pinned the tweet at the top of his page.
Given the uncertainty over how courts interpret the Constitution, coupled with the possibility that the president defies their rulings, Democrats and others who oppose what DOGE is doing shouldn鈥檛 put too much stock in the courts stopping Mr. Musk, says Daniel Farbman, professor of constitutional law at Boston College. Instead, they need to bring the public along by exposing the risks posed by Mr. Musk鈥檚 unfettered power. Judges are also aware of the risk of ruling actions unconstitutional after they have already happened, such as DOGE鈥檚 examination of tax databases, without obvious means of redress.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think Elon Musk feels constrained by anything,鈥� Professor Farbman says. 鈥淭he question is whether you can build a politics that makes it necessary鈥� for Mr. Musk and the administration to obey the courts.
