White House says Elon Musk will police his own conflicts of interest
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US President Donald Trump said Mr Elon Musk will excuse himself if he comes across a conflict of interest with his work reviewing federal spending.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – The White House said Mr Elon Musk, the billionaire leading US President Donald Trump’s government cost-cutting efforts, will determine if there are conflicts of interest between his work reviewing federal spending and his overlapping empire of six companies.
“The President was already asked to answer this question this week,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a briefing. “And he said, if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that Doge is overseeing, that Elon will excuse himself from those contracts, and he has again abided by all applicable laws.”
Mr Musk, as the “special government employee” leading a federal team known as the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), is subject to conflict of interest rules, but those are largely enforced by White House officials.
Mr Musk, 53, is the chief executive of SpaceX, which has significant government contracts with Nasa and the US military. The company’s rocket launches are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration. He is also the CEO of Tesla, the electric car-maker that has been the subject of probes by several federal agencies, ranging from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“I don’t know of any other case, anywhere, in which an individual could determine for himself whether he had a conflict of interest,” said Dr Donald Kettl, a professor emeritus and former dean at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.
“In fact, self-determination of a conflict of interest is itself a conflict of interest.”
The executive order creating Doge tasked the group with “modernising federal technology and software to maximise governmental efficiency and productivity”.
Since then Mr Musk has moved swiftly, with Doge staff now embedded at agencies across the government, including the Office of Personnel Management, the General Services Administration and the Treasury Department. BLOOMBERG
