The richest person in the world, Elon Musk, has become an official employee of the US federal government. He started working for President Donald Trump as a ‘special government employee’. He has his government email address and office space in the White House complex.
Musk already has a lot of jobs—he is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, xAI founder, Chairman, and CTO of X, to name a few. His role in the U.S. government will be significant; he has become part of the newly created executive order DOGE. He is leading the DOGE team, which finds and eliminates government waste, fraud, and abuse.
President Donald Trump said that Elon is doing a job. He is a big cost-cutter. Maybe, sometimes we will not agree, and we will not go where he wants to move. But I believe he is doing great work.
A Quick Brief on “Special Government Employee”
As described by the U.S. Department of Justice, a special government works for the government for 130 days or less in 365 days. The employees must be impartial in doing their responsibilities.
However, it is still not clear how standard rules on ethics agreements and financial disclosures will be placed on Musk, who has billions of dollars in federal contracts with his company, SpaceX.
As per the resources, Must will not the getting any paycheck for his work. Also, it does not seem like he will need to file a public financial disclosure report.
The US government has been using this “special government employee” classification for temporary employees who are experts in a special field but do not want to be employed permanently.
These government employees are not subject to the ethics and conflict-of-interest results that government employees generally face. Tesla and SpaceX-like companies have gained major advantages from government contracts.
As confirmed by the president, Musk’s team got access to the critical payment system of the Treasury Department. Musk has been granted broad latitude by Trump to cut down the federal government’s size.
Soon, after joining the government, Elon launched a campaign in the federal government to radically upend agencies, working on a level of control so cleaning that is stunning former top white officials.
Last Monday, the headquarters of the US Agency for International Development was certainly shut down. Democrats are afraid that Musk is consolidating power within the federal government and working without any accountability, potentially against the law.
As a part of its duties, Must’s cut-slashing unit is focusing on the systems of the Small Businesses Administration that provide loans and support to small firms. As DOGE officials move to enter the inner functioning of the federal government, Musk has been continuously sharing it on X.
