Musk ‘can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval, and we’ll give him the approval where appropriate,’ Trump said.
The White House on Monday confirmed that Space X and Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk is considered a “special government employee” under the Trump administration amid questions about his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Speaking to reporters at the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Musk’s federal status and added, “I can also confirm that he has abided by all applicable federal laws.”
Leavitt was also asked about Musk’s security clearance. She said she didn’t know but would check on it.
The designation allows Musk, the world’s richest person, to work for the federal government and potentially avoid disclosure rules regarding possible conflicts of interest and finances that generally apply to other government staff. Special government employees are appointed for no more than 130 days.
President Donald Trump said that Musk “can’t do 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,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
The Republican president also downplayed complaints about Musk’s alleged conflict of interests, saying, “Where we think there’s a conflict or there’s a problem, we won’t let him go near it, but he has some very good ideas.”
One of the most significant steps was DOGE gaining access to the U.S. Treasury payment system, which is responsible for 1 billion payments per year totaling $5 trillion. It includes sensitive information involving bank accounts and Social Security payments.
It’s unclear what Musk wants to do with the payment system. He has said that he could trim $1 trillion from the federal deficit “just by addressing waste, fraud and abuse.”
Democratic lawmakers have decried what they characterize as an unelected billionaire amassing too much power over the federal government.
“That’s the biggest data hack ever in the world,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) told reporters in Madison, Wisconsin.
“I am outraged about it,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Capitol Hill, adding that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent must revoke Musk’s access to the payment system. “We must halt this unlawful and dangerous power grab.”
He framed DOGE’s mission in existential terms.
“This is the one shot the American people have to defeat BUREAUcracy, rule of the bureaucrats, and restore DEMOcracy, rule of the people,” Musk wrote. “We’re never going to get another chance like this.”
“The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented,” the groups wrote in their complaint, filed in the District of Columbia federal court.
Aside from the Treasury Department, Musk and Trump have set their sights on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with both saying that the organization has been led by radicals and needs to be dissolved.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
