Abby Schultz

Megabillionaire Elon Musk's role in the U.S. government continues to be under scrutiny.

In a Feb. 17 court filing, Joshua Fisher, director of the U.S. president's office of administration, wrote that Musk isn't the head of the Department of Government Efficiency nor an employee of the initiative. Instead, he is a special government employee with the title of senior advisor to the president.

As senior advisor, "Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself," the statement said. "Mr. Musk can only advise the president and communicate the president's directives." The filing specified that this means Musk can't make personnel decisions at individual agencies.

The declaration was made despite the fact President Donald Trump named Musk and biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the efficiency effort after he was elected. Ramaswamy left the initiative in January to run for governor of Ohio, and Musk has appeared to run it alone ever since.

Since Trump was inaugurated, the Tesla CEO has been the consistent voice of DOGE, posting job openings for the efficiency effort on X, bringing in young employees from his companies, and extolling DOGE's successes as its staff slashes jobs and contracts throughout the government.

Fisher's declaration "doesn't pass the sniff test at all," said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, director of government affairs at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan, independent government watchdog.

It may be a technicality that Musk isn't the "administrator" of the U.S. DOGE Service, as the effort is officially called, but, "it's clear that Elon Musk is calling the shots and running the show, and any claim otherwise is pretty ridiculous on its face," Hedtler-Gaudette said.

Musk, via Tesla, hasn't replied to a request for comment. The White House hasn't responded to questions regarding Fisher's declaration that Musk doesn't run DOGE.

Musk's title and where he works matters for a couple of reasons. First, the declaration was made in response to a federal lawsuit brought by 14 states to a district court in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 13 against Musk, DOGE, and Trump.

The lawsuit challenges "Musk's constitutional authority to exercise significant government powers as the head of DOGE without Senate confirmation," according to Just Security, a nonprofit that is tracking litigation against the Trump administration. The lawsuit also charges that Musk is in violation of the appointments clause of the U.S. constitution.

The White House says Musk doesn't need Senate confirmation because he's a senior advisor, not the head of DOGE. However, as a special government employee in the White House, Musk is "covered by the criminal conflict of interest law" said Walter Shaub, an ethics expert and former OGE director who resigned in 2017, during Trump's first administration.

That means Musk has to comply with a law that "prohibits special government employees, like all other executive branch employees, from participating in any particular matter affecting their financial interests or the financial interest of anyone whose interests are imputed to them, such as a spouse or a general partner," Shaub said in an earlier email. "They cannot work on any particular matter affecting a company in which they hold either stock or any other form of ownership interest."

As the CEO of Tesla, aerospace and defense contractor SpaceX, and as the owner of X, and other companies, Musk's widespread business interests are overseen by several government agencies. Many of these agencies have had ongoing investigations or regulatory battles with Musk's businesses. To advise on cuts or other changes to one of these agencies, Musk would require a conflict-of-interest waiver "if he meets the standard" for one, Shaub said.

On Feb. 7, Barron's filed separate Office of Government Ethics requests with the Office of Management and Budget and the White House, seeking a copy of any conflict of interest waivers provided to Musk. The OMB Office of General Counsel replied on Tuesday that "OMB has no responsive documents to provide." That is likely because his role doesn't report to OMB, which is part of the executive branch. The White House hasn't replied to Barron's request yet.

Write to Abby Schultz at abby.schultz@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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February 18, 2025 16:22 ET (21:22 GMT)

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