Elon Musk said two very interesting and contradictory things related to his government employment during a Tesla results on Tuesday.
Firstly, he suggested that he is almost over time to focus on his ad hoc role of bringing a chainsaw to federal government elements with the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
“Starting next month, May, my time allocation for Doge to fall significantly,” said Musk during Tesla’s connection.
This simple idea – that Musk could spend more time in his real business – was enough to trigger a recovery on Wednesday in the price of Tesla stocks, which was falling largely due to Musk’s polarizing role in Trump’s administration.
But, right away, Musk implied that he would not leave the government entirely, and perhaps not until 2029, when President Donald Trump’s term end.
“I will have to continue to do so during, I think, probably the rest of the president’s term, just to ensure that the waste and fraud we stop not coming back, which will happen if you have the opportunity,” said Musk, adding: “I think I will continue to dedicate a day or two a week to government matters while the president wants me to do and while useful.”
What does this mean exactly and what is the legal authority for Musk to stay in the White House?
Musk’s role is already at the limit of what is officially allowed in Washington. The White House said he is a “special government official”, which allowed him, unlike full -time federal workers, to continue to make money from the “about 17 jobs” he says he has. CNN reported that Musk is not receiving a salary for its government work.
Giving Musk an extended authority to supervise Doge, dismissing workers and earning agencies throughout the government has always been an incorrect application of the law of special civil servants, according to Max Stier, executive director of the partnership for the civil service.
Special civil servants should “bring specialized skills that are not internally in government,” he said.
But the Trump administration, by hiring Musk and others in this way, “abused the purpose of this hiring to overcome many of the conflict issues, the authorization issues that would have in a full -time permanent employee.”
“It is not possible that Elon Musk has his hands around the type of decisions he makes on issues that have such great relevance to his private financial interests,” said Stier.
Instead of a successful efficiency operation, Stier argued that Doge’s effort has been a waste. He argued that the dismissal of IRS employees at tax time will cost the government hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars in revenues this year – more than the entire federal payroll.
Doge has published the alleged cost reduction in a web site, but the numbers have been difficult to check. Musk said earlier that he could get a dollar billion savings, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. And the real impacts on government are not yet known.
“I think we still don’t understand all the contours because it has been an incredibly uncommon operation,” said Stier.
There are rules for special civil servants. The most important thing is that they can only work for the US government for 130 days within a period of 365 days.
It is not clear if Musk’s first day was the day of inauguration, on January 20, or later. His position as a special civil servant – not voluntary, but not an official civil servant – was announced in early February.
If, technically, he leaves the public service at the end of May, it will be 130 days after January 20, although the reference to “special civil servants” in the US Code suggests that they can comply with 130 days. But Musk did not specifically say that he was leaving the public service. Instead, he said he will continue to contribute a part of his time every week to Doge and the Government, even after May.
Stier said he would not be surprised if the White House contoured the rules to keep Musk’s advice after the law says he should no longer play an official role.
In addition, the Justice Department has argued in the past that special government employees are subject to the fees clause, which means they cannot receive payments from foreign governments. If Musk has filled a mandatory financial statement, it was not publicly disclosed, although CNN has documented many ways in which its commercial interests intersect with its government cuts.
Trump had previously recognized that Musk would leave the government this year, but said Doge’s work will continue.
“There will be a time when he will have to leave and when he does, the secretaries will totally take control and the doge will remain active,” Trump told reporters at Air Force One in early April. “We have a lot of smart people. I believe many of these people will go to agencies and work from it from the inside out.”
Musk is one of many Trump administration employees with various jobs. The leader of the Government Ethics Office, the government agency that could supervise these potential conflicts to special civil servants, was fired by Trump shortly after the beginning of his term. The US commercial representative, Jamieson Greer, is currently the interim director of the Ethics Office, in addition to his daily work in the management of Trump’s trade negotiations.
