- President Donald Trump’s public statements contradict the legal positions of his White House, which previously said billionaire Elon Musk isn’t technically running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that’s tasked with identifying wide-ranging cuts across the government. That could complicate the administration’s efforts to defend against court challenges to its federal overhaul.
Is Elon Musk running the Department of Government Efficiency or not? President Donald Trump and his White House can’t seem to deliver a straight answer.
In a sworn statement filed in court on Monday, White House official Joshua Fisher denied that Musk was even an employee of the DOGE task force, despite public perception that he is aligned with the office he frequently champions.
“He is not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service or U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization. Mr. Musk is not the U.S. DOGE Service administrator,” the court papers stated.
On Wednesday, though, Trump contradicted his legal team, declaring to an audience in Miami: “I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency and put a man named Elon Musk in charge,” according to Reuters.
Monday’s court filing itself came as a shock to many. Since Trump won the election, Musk has been the public face of DOGE, even appearing in the Oval Office with the President and sitting for a joint interview with Trump that aired this week, where Musk once again explained how DOGE is set on carrying out executive orders.
The declaration by Fisher, the director of the Office of Administration at the White House, was in response to a lawsuit filed last week by Democratic state attorneys general who allege Trump’s elevation of Musk violates the Constitution because he was never elected. The administration also faces other legal challenges concerning access to data—and it could be why the White House chose to walk back prior indications surrounding Musk and the non-Cabinet-level cost-cutting body. Legal and political professionals believe the declaration creates legal insulation for the Trump administration and Musk.
No one seems to know who’s actually running the department, not even those within the Justice Department—or longtime employees of the office that became DOGE. “The White House is constructing the most defensible way to get around what is either a violation of the law or the exploitation of a series of loopholes,” Jeff Hauser, founder and executive director of the accountability group Revolving Door Project, previously told Fortune.
“I strongly suspect Musk is in charge of DOGE, has been referred to as such, and representations to the court to the contrary are inaccurate,” he added.
The White House’s legal position via the filing “makes clear that Musk’s presence does not violate any federal law or constitutional provision,” John Yoo, the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, previously told Fortune.
In making the case that Musk isn’t really in charge of DOGE, the White House legal team paints him as a presidential adviser or a chief of staff—two powerful positions that, nonetheless, are seen as extensions of the president’s authority, not as officials in their own right, a legal scholar told Fortune. If he has no authority to execute the law and can only offer advice, “Musk cannot be sued for DOGE activities,” Yoo said. “As a White House advisor, Musk is really just an extension of the president himself. Any lawsuit would have to really be against the president or the United States government.”
If that argument holds in court, states and others challenging DOGE’s actions will likely have a hard time winning their cases to halt the department’s actions. But with Trump’s latest declaration about Musk, it’s uncertain if a judge will believe the world’s richest man isn’t really running the show.
