President Trump denied reports that Elon Musk will be given office space in the West Wing for his DOGE cost-cutting project.
The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder was initially expected to take an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is in the White House complex, but not the West Wing.
But The New York Times reported that Musk – the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $433.9 billion – has been asking officials about his level of access and requesting closer proximity to Trump.
During a press conference on Monday night, Trump denied that Musk would be in the West Wing, saying “he’s getting an office for about 20 people that we’re hiring to make sure these (executive orders) get implemented.”
Trump’s team and a representative for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Department of Government Efficiency is not an official department, like the name would suggest, but a separate team tasked with slashing federal spending — by as much as $2 trillion, according to Musk.
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — who was poised to co-lead the project — is leaving DOGE to focus on his run for governor of Ohio, according to a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team.
On Tuesday, Musk revealed the team’s first cost-cutting action: shutting down the Chief Diversity Officers Executive Council after Trump pledged to do away with diversity and inclusion measures.
DOGE staffers have spent the past two months working from SpaceX’s downtown Washington offices, along with a group of engineers from Silicon Valley who will be split amongst government agencies, according to the Times.
Some of these workers tote around navy blue baseball caps that read “DOGE” in capital letters, according to the report.
Aside from the branded hats, much about the cost-cutting project has been kept under wraps – including whether Musk, a close Trump ally and major campaign donor, will be considered a special government employee or not.
The designation could seriously impact Musk’s freedoms under government ethics laws.
Special government employees have more flexibility than regular staffers, and do not have to conduct work in the public view. They have to disclose their finances, but if Musk opts not to take a salary, he could avoid releasing any information to the public in this role.
But Musk would still face some limits as a temporary special employee – including a federal law that makes it a crime for government employees, including those with the special designation, to engage in official matters that could help themselves, their families or their organizations.
The billionaire techie, of course, has multiple firms tied to the government. SpaceX has a number of contracts with the government to send astronauts and satellites into space. Tesla is also impacted by government policies, like electric vehicle subsidies.
The president could exempt Musk from this ethics law by signing a waiver.
Despite the limits under the federal ethics law, the special designation could help DOGE avoid some regulatory hurdles. If the entire team becomes government employees, DOGE could avoid the oversight under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
The law requires all meetings to be conducted in public and all documents to be submitted to a panel for review and made available to the public.
