Billionaire Elon Musk’s position in the Trump administration is as a White House employee and senior adviser to the president, not as an employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and he does not have decision-making authority, the White House stated in a court filing on Monday.
The filing, signed by Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration at the White House, clarified that Musk’s role is limited to advising the president and relaying the president’s directives.
“Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” the filing said.
Fisher’s statement was made in response to a lawsuit filed against Musk by the State of New Mexico. It also noted that Musk is not an employee of the US DOGE Service or the US DOGE Service Temporary Organization, and he is not the US DOGE Service Administrator.
Since Donald Trump began his second term as president last month, DOGE has made significant inroads into federal agencies, with Musk, the CEO of Tesla, tasked with addressing wasteful spending as part of a sweeping government overhaul that has included thousands of job cuts.
