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Elon Musk doesn’t have independent powers to fire anyone from federal agencies, the Justice Department has told a federal judge, shooting down some of critics’ more fantastical theories about the head of President Trump’s effort to remake the bureaucracy.
Indeed, Mr. Musk isn’t even technically part of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, the department said. He is an employee of the White House, but not the DOGE or the DOGE Temporary Service Organization.
“Mr. Musk is not the U.S. DOGE Service administrator,” Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration, told the judge in a sworn declaration.
Mr. Musk “has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” Mr. Fisher said.
That specifically means he lacks the ability to make personnel decisions at departments and agencies.
Even though Mr. Trump has cited Mr. Musk as head of the DOGE, he does not hold any position with the office, Mr. Fisher said.
Instead, Mr. Musk is a senior adviser to Mr. Trump and a non-career special government employee.
Mr. Fisher said that’s similar to the role Anita Dunn played for President Biden.
“In his role as a senior adviser to the president, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisers,” Mr. Fisher said.
After the filing was made, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News that while Mr. Musk is considered a special government employee, he is still “overseeing DOGE on behalf of the president.” --->READ MORE HERE
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is not officially an employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but is still overseeing its operations as a senior adviser to President Trump, the White House argued in a court filing this week.
The Tesla and SpaceX founder is considered a special government employee who can “advise” and “communicate” Trump’s orders, Office of Administration Director Joshua Fisher wrote in a signed declaration filed in Washington, DC, federal court.
Those include recommendations for DOGE cost-cutters and other employees in the executive branch, a White House spokesperson told The Post — despite Musk, 53, not being the non-governmental department’s administrator.
“Elon Musk has been tasked with overseeing DOGE on behalf of the president,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News’ “America Reports” Tuesday.
Leavitt also said that DOGE workers are “onboarding” at executive branch agencies “as political appointees” to “cut waste, fraud and abuse.”
“Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” Fisher said, likening his status to that of former President Joe Biden’s senior adviser Anita Dunn.
DOGE is a “component” of the Executive Office of the President, Fisher added, without providing the name of an administrator.
The president tapped Musk in November to “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government” at DOGE, along with since-departed co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump, 78, had billed the effort as a “Manhattan Project” to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” --->READ MORE HERE
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