Elon Musk can only advise Trump and communicate the president’s directives, a White House official said.
Elon Musk is not an employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and does not have the authority to make decisions, the White House said in new court filings on Feb. 17.
Both DOGE and a subunit of DOGE are separate from the White House office, which employs Musk as a special government employee who is a senior adviser to the president, White House official Joshua Fisher
said in one of the documents.
“Mr. Musk is an employee in the White House Office. He is not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service or U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization,” Fisher wrote. “Mr Musk is not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator.”
Fisher also said that Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisers and, like the other advisers, “has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.”
“Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President’s directives,” Fisher wrote.
U.S. Department of Justice lawyers
said in another filing that Musk is employed by the White House, not DOGE, “and he only has the ability to advise the President, or communicate the President’s directives, like other senior White House officials.”
The White House previously said that Musk is a
special government employee and has abided by “all applicable federal laws.” President Donald Trump has said that Musk “can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval, and we’ll give him the approval where appropriate; where not appropriate, we won’t.”
The filings were entered as part of a case
brought by attorneys general of Arizona, New Mexico, and other states. The complaint alleges that the authority that Trump has granted to Musk is unconstitutional because Musk was not confirmed by the Senate, which typically confirms top executive branch officials.
“Mr. Musk has inserted himself into the highest levels of over a dozen federal agencies and begun directing the agencies’ actions in ways that exceed even the authority” of Senate-confirmed leaders, a motion for a temporary restraining order
stated. It said that Musk, “an individual accountable only to the President—if he answers to anyone at all—is exercising apparently limitless power within the Executive Branch.”
During oral arguments on Monday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case,
appeared reluctant to issue the order against DOGE as requested by the attorneys general. She said she would issue a ruling on Tuesday.
Chutkan also asked the government to provide her with information on government layoffs, which have now
reached the thousands.
The government entered the filings after the hearing, with lawyers stating they’re aware that “a select set of agencies in fact terminated a number of employees at the end of last week” but that they “cannot make a programmatic representation at this juncture” about how agencies will act over the next two weeks.
Trump formed DOGE shortly after taking office. In a Feb. 11 executive order, he
directed agency heads to develop future hiring plans in consultation with DOGE.
During an appearance that day in the Oval Office with Musk, Trump said that Musk should detail some of the things that his team has found.
Musk went over what he said was the goal of DOGE, which he said was to cut waste in an effort to “restore democracy.”
“I don’t know of a case where an organization has more transparent than the DOGE organization. The things we’re doing are, I think, very simple and basic,” he said.
Some lawmakers have been critical of DOGE, which has been examining data across executive branch agencies in recent weeks.
“No one elected Elon Musk, yet Musk and his ‘DOGE’ cronies continue to dodge accountability while playing games with Americans’ hard-earned benefits,” Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.)
said in a recent statement as he introduced a bill called the “Ending DOGE Conflicts Act.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other Democrats later
wrote to Musk urging him to release his financial disclosure form, which has not yet been made public.
Musk said while with Trump: “You can see everything that’s going on and then you can see, am I doing something that benefits one of my companies or not? It’s totally obvious.”
Musk also said that he does not act without the president’s approval.
“I check with the president to make sure that this is what the president wants to happen,” he said. “We talk almost every day, and I double-check things to make sure. Is this something, Mr. President, you want us to do this? Then we'll do it.”
