Quick, name the leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency. If you answered, "Elon Musk," you're at least technically incorrect. The White House on Monday night explicitly stated in a court filing that Musk isn't the administrator of DOGE, reports the New York Times. Nor is Musk even an employee of the cost-cutting office created by President Trump, said Joshua Fisher, director of the White House's Office of Administration, per the Verge. Instead, Fisher described Musk as an adviser to the president in his two-page filing.
"Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself," he wrote. "Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President's directives." The legal filing was made in response to a lawsuit from 14 states questioning the role of DOGE and Musk in the federal government. When Trump created DOGE on his first day in office, the paperwork stipulated it would have an administrator, but it's not clear who, if anyone, is currently in that role.
As Politico notes, the "technical designation does not mean Musk is not, for all practical purposes, the key decision-maker for DOGE, which has been staffed full of his allies and may still ultimately be fueled by his influence in the White House." Both he and the president have done nothing to suggest in their public comments that Musk wasn't calling the shots. The filing does, however, suggest a "technical degree of separation that raises new questions about accountability" on DOGE's actions, writes Kyle Cheney. (More Elon Musk stories.)
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