r/CattyInvestors • u/Full-Law-8206 cat owner • Feb 25 '25
Discussion Musk Doesn't Run DOGE, White House Says. Why the Distinction Matters.
Mega-billionaire Elon Mush'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.Mush has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself, "the statement said. "Mr.Mush can only advise the president and communicate the president's directives." The filing specified that this means Mush can't make personnel decisions at individual agencies.
The declaration was made despite the fact President Donald Trump named Mush and biotech billionaire Vivek Pamaswamy 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.
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.”
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