The White House stated that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is not part of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Trump administration, and is simply a senior advisor to President Donald Trump. This contradicts the previously known fact that Musk was the head of DOGE, and given Musk's recent appearance at the White House next to Trump, where he promoted and defended the duties of DOGE, controversy surrounding Musk's role is expected to ignite.
According to reports from the Associated Press and others on the 18th, White House Chief of Staff Joshua Fisher noted on the 17th that Musk is not a DOGE administrator and does not have actual authority to make government decisions. Fisher added that Musk is "just a White House office staff member, not a DOGE employee."
Trump established DOGE with an executive order on his first day in office. However, the executive order does not specify who the DOGE administrator is. The related executive order merely states, "There must be an administrator in the presidential administration who reports to the White House." This also conflicts with Trump's earlier comments revealing plans to establish DOGE, wherein he explained that "Musk and (the now-resigned) Vivek Ramaswamy will lead DOGE."
Until last week, the White House had not responded to repeated requests to disclose who the DOGE administrator is. Earlier, White House spokesperson Caroline Riveet refused to reveal the DOGE administrator's identity on the 18th, stating, "Dismissals are up to the individual agency heads." In an interview with Fox News, she added, "Musk works under Trump's direction, just like everyone else in the federal government."
DOGE has raised concerns about infiltrating federal government computer systems, including the Treasury Department, as well as uncovering waste and abuse issues. Thus, allegations that Trump and DOGE have violated the law are continuously being brought forth in lawsuits. At least two lawsuits target Musk personally. However, Musk stood before the press and stated that all actions of DOGE are "carried out as transparently as possible," adding, "We post our actions on the DOGE website. All our actions are transparent." The Washington Post criticized, "One of the many opaque facts regarding DOGE is that Musk holds no official role within DOGE."
The New York Times estimated that the DOGE administrator might be Steve Davies, who has been Musk's right-hand man for the past 20 years. Additionally, Brad Smith, who was closely involved with DOGE's operations as the first official of the Trump administration, is also considered a possible candidate. Riveet, the White House spokesperson, did not respond to requests for comments regarding the document submitted to the court by Fisher, the White House Chief of Staff.
Meanwhile, according to the executive order, the DOGE administrator possesses various powers. First, they can select DOGE team members and initiate software modernization initiatives to update government technologies. According to a second executive order announced last week, the DOGE administrator is to receive monthly hiring reports from each federal agency and submit a compliance report to Trump within 240 days.