Trump makes world’s richest man Musk a ‘special government employee’

WASHINGTON – Billionaire Elon Musk, who has moved swiftly to shrink the size of the US government at President Donald Trump’s behest, is now considered a “special government employee”, the White House said on Feb 3.

The designation allows Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, to work for the federal government but potentially avoid disclosure rules about conflicts of interest and finances that apply to regular government employees.

He still runs electric car company Tesla and aerospace company SpaceX while chairing Mr Trump’s cost-cutting effort called the Department of Government Efficiency. As chief executive of SpaceX, he oversees the company’s contracts with the Pentagon and intelligence community that are worth billions of dollars.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr Musk is classified as a special government employee. A senior White House official said Mr Musk is not receiving a government pay cheque and is following the law.

Special government employees are appointed to their positions for no more than 130 days, but Mr Trump has not said how long Mr Musk’s position will last.

Mr Musk, who has promised “mass head-count reductions” across the federal bureaucracy, has drawn wide scrutiny in recent days as his team has been given access to, or has taken control of, numerous government systems. His moves have struck fear into the government workforce and caused chaos inside some agencies.

Reuters reported on Jan 31 that aides to Mr Musk charged with running the US government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.

Mr Musk has also

targeted the US Agency for International Development (USAid) for closure,

calling the humanitarian agency a left-wing organisation unaccountable to the White House.

Democratic lawmakers have decried what they characterise as an unelected billionaire amassing too much power over the federal government.

Mr Trump, whom officials say has entrusted Mr Musk with overseeing the revamp of USAid, on Feb 3 defended Mr Musk but said there are limits to what his adviser can do.

“Elon 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. But he reports in,” the US leader said to reporters.

“It’s something that he feels very strongly about, and I’m impressed, because he’s running, obviously, a big company.

“If there’s a conflict, then we won’t let him get near it. But he does have a good, natural instinct. He’s got a team of very talented people.”

Questions about accountability

Since taking office on Jan 20, Mr Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps towards downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.

A separate US official said Mr Trump is not closely monitoring Mr Musk’s moves but is being kept up to date. “He’s read in,” the official said of the President’s awareness of Mr Musk’s activities.

Washington University School of Law government ethics professor Kathleen Clark said most special government employees are not required to publicly file financial disclosures.

Mr Musk’s new designation could be a way to avoid disclosing publicly his finances and his many conflicts, she said.

“If they do not make public his financial disclosure, it may make it impossible for the public and non-governmental organisations and journalists to hold him and the government accountable and make sure he does not participate in matters where he has conflicts,” she said.

Mr Musk spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Mr Trump win the presidential election in November 2024.

On X, the social media platform that Mr Musk also owns, he shared a post from right-wing commentator Rogan O’Handley that said Mr Musk had prominently campaigned with Mr Trump and voters had knowingly voted for his cost-cutting agenda. REUTERS