Before president Donald Trump even took office, we braced for the influence Tesla boss Elon Musk might have on the new government. The billionaire donated a small fortune to the Trump campaign, and the “Home Alone 2” actor pledged to invent Musk an entire government department to make it up to him. That department has since wrought havoc across the government: gutting staff, pausing funding and getting access to all kinds of sensitive data.
Despite having this weird choke hold on the government, it turns out that Musk doesn’t actually have any authority and the White House has now confirmed where the billionaire sits in the ranking of America’s most powerful men, reports the Independent. Musk reportedly has “no actual authority” in government, and isn’t even an employee of the Department of Government Efficiency that he leads. In fact, Musk is nothing more than an advisor to the president, as the site explains:
The White House said in a court filing Mr Musk has no decision-making authority and can only advise the president and relay directives. It also emphasised that Mr Musk is not an employee of the US DOGE Service or its temporary organisation, nor is he the DOGE Service Administrator.
“Like other senior White House advisors, Mr Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” it said, according to Reuters.
In December last year, Mr Trump said: “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.” Since then, and following Mr Ramaswamy’s departure from DOGE, Mr Trump has consistently referred to Mr Musk as its leader.
However, according to Joshua Fischer, Director of the Office of Administration at the White House, Mr Musk is neither the administrator nor an employee of DOGE. Instead, Mr Musk holds the title of “non-career special government employee” and serves as a senior adviser to the president.
In his role, Musk can’t make any formal decisions for the government to follow and instead is only there to offer advice. This hasn’t stopped him hogging the spotlight and having an almighty sway on government policy since Trump took office last month.
The influence he has over Trump sparked concerns for lawmakers across America, with U.S. judge Tanya Chutkan challenging Musk’s authority. The judge expressed worries about the “unpredictable and scattershot” methods used by Musk and his cronies, adds the Independent.
While the White House set out to confirm that it’s not Musk running the show, it didn’t say who actually is in charge of things at the Department of Government Efficiency. Maybe it’s Trump, maybe it’s Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been pretty quiet since the new administration took control of America.
