Elon Musk’s ‘unprecedented’ power in the US governmentMore than two weeks after US President Donald Trump took office, billionaire Elon Musk – CEO of electric car company Tesla – began leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and started the process of restructuring the federal government…
Mr. Musk speaks at a rally at Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C. on the day of Mr. Trump’s second term inauguration on January 20 – Photo: Reuters
Shortly after Mr. Trump signed the executive order establishing DOGE and appointing Mr. Musk to the position of co-director of this agency, the world’s richest billionaire quickly took action, establishing a team of subordinates including current and former employees of his companies.
Implementing Mr. Trump’s cost-cutting plan by reducing the size of the US government, Mr. Musk became one of the new powerful figures in Washington.
“SPECIAL GOVERNMENT SERVER”
This week, alongside developments surrounding Mr. Trump’s trade war with Canada, Mexico, and China, major U.S. newspapers have been filled with reports of Mr. Musk’s efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), America’s top global humanitarian aid agency.
In the two weeks since Mr. Musk was named a “special government servant,” DOGE’s staff has had easy access to the most sensitive data and financial systems. This is despite warnings from career civil servants that DOGE is breaking important processes.
“We are seeing an extraordinary concentration of power in a person who has no top security clearance and has not been confirmed by the Senate,” said Don Moynihan, a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. “Mr. Musk has unprecedented centralized control over the fundamental system of government.”
However, supporters say that Mr. Musk is in fact acting on Mr. Trump’s orders. Earlier this week, Mr. Trump told the media that all of Mr. Musk’s actions must be approved by the White House.
“Elon (Musk) cannot and will not do anything that we do not approve. We will approve actions that are appropriate and reject actions that are not appropriate,” the US President said on Monday (February 3).
Mr. Trump has repeatedly commented that the US federal executive branch is too bloated and ineffective, and therefore needs to be streamlined. He also believes that many federal employees are liberals and want to hinder his agenda.
This is the reason for the birth of DOGE. Although it is called the Department of Government Performance, it does not operate as a regular department within the US government and Musk does not receive a salary. The US government has not yet released a list of DOGE employees, nor has it said how they are paid or whether they are government employees.
Musk and his DOGE team have now taken over the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration (GSA), along with their entire computer systems. OPM is the US government’s human resources agency, which oversees more than 2.2 million US civil servants. GSA oversees most government contracts and manages federal property.
According to Reuters, at least four DOGE employees who were part of the OPM takeover team have blocked some senior managers from accessing their computers. Musk visited GSA last Thursday, while some DOGE employees have already moved in.
Last Friday, a group of Musk’s DOGE employees were granted access to the US Treasury’s payment system, which disburses more than $6 trillion a year and contains personal information on millions of Americans who receive Social Security, tax refunds and other government payments.
“People who have worked at Musk’s companies can now see his hand in everything that happens in the government,” Thomas Moline, a former engineer at Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX, told Reuters.
According to Michael Linden, a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Biden administration, Musk’s employees’ access to the federal payment system gives them extraordinary power.
IS MR. MUSK EXCEEDING HIS AUTHORITY?
However, Mr. Musk’s actions in recent times have met with opposition and skepticism from government unions, watchdog organizations and public interest organizations.
According to management experts, the billionaire appears to be going beyond the mandate given to him in Trump’s January 20 executive order establishing DOGE. The order calls for DOGE to modernize federal technology and software “to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of the government.” In other executive orders suspending hiring of civil servants, DOGE is mentioned as working with other agencies to make recommendations.
But Musk and his staff are said to be doing more than just making recommendations. DOGE employees clashed with security personnel over access to sensitive information at USAID headquarters in Washington, and they were deeply involved in the agency’s downsizing.
Fears are looming over American civil servants. Many have taken to social media sites like Reddit, Signal and Facebook to share what is going on in their offices and discuss how to respond. Musk’s opponents, including some Democratic lawmakers, have accused the billionaire of taking over the government with a hostile agenda. Several federal unions have filed lawsuits to block Musk and his staff from accessing sensitive computer systems.
Nick Bednar, an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School, expressed concern that Musk and his team have such power over government personnel and federal payments while “having virtually no accountability.”
“Musk’s ownership of multiple companies that have contracts with the U.S. government also raises questions about conflicts of interest,” Bednar said.
