Donald Trump was quick to appoint his political adviser and top campaign donor — tech billionaire Elon Musk — into the government soon after he was elected as the US President in November last year. Musk was brought in as a special government employee to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Less than three months later, the White House has stated in a court filing that Musk is not a DOGE employee and has no decision-making authority. His role in the Trump administration is as a White House employee and senior adviser to the president, a filing signed by Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration at the White House stated Monday.
"Like other senior White House advisors, Mr Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself," it said, adding Musk can only advise the president and communicate the president's directives. The filing compared Musk's role to that of Anita Dunn, a longtime political adviser who served as a senior adviser to President Joe Biden.
Fisher's filing, made in a case brought against Musk by the State of New Mexico, said that Musk was not an employee of the DOGE Service, or the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organisation, and added: "Mr Musk is not the US DOGE Service Administrator."
However, the filing did not provide any information about who oversees DOGE, other than ruling out Musk.
"I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency," Trump said in December 2024. Since then, and following Ramaswamy's departure from DOGE, he has routinely referred to Musk its leader.
Notably, DOGE has disrupted the federal agencies as part a dramatic overhaul of government that has included thousands of job cuts. The focus of DOGE was on regulating government spending.
Of late, DOGE hit a legal roadblock, with a federal judge barring its access to US Treasury payment systems while allowing it to proceed with investigations at health, labor, and consumer protection agencies.