- Elon Musk has been granted a special designation that allows him to serve on boards and advisories without the requirement that he make the public disclosures of a regular government worker—including about his finances. The position’s temporary status could explain Musk’s blitz of activity.
Elon Musk has a title in the White House more official than President Donald Trump’s “first buddy.”
The White House confirmed Monday that Musk is a “special government employee,” a position that permits him to perform limited activities in government, like service on committees and boards, though he won’t be on the government’s payroll, according to a White House official. The role might also mean Musk can skirt public disclosures of his finances and conflicts of interest.
Musk is under a tight deadline. He’s permitted to work no more than 130 days per year.
“Elon Musk is selflessly serving President Trump’s Administration as a special government employee, and he has abided by all applicable federal laws,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fortune in a statement.
Musk, who is affiliated with Tesla, SpaceX, X, the Boring Company, Neuralink, and xAI, would be required to file a disclosure report if his decision-making “could have an economic effect on a non-federal entity,” according to the Department of Justice’s ethics rules. However, only special government employees getting paid at a certain level and working more than 60 days are required to publicly disclose finances. The White House hasn’t directly confirmed whether Musk will make public or confidential disclosures at this point. Typically, publicly traded company CEOs and board members resign their private sector positions before taking a role in government because they have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders that could potentially conflict, or create the appearance of a conflict, with their government role.
The role cements Musk as a powerful and controversial figure in Trump’s administration. Tasked with leading the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk has been given Trump’s blessing to cull government jobs as a means of tightening federal spending. All the while, Musk, the world’s richest man, remains the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
Trump has effectively handed Musk the “the keys to the candy store,” Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told Bloomberg. DOGE—and Musk by extension—now has access to the Treasury Department’s payment system responsible for $6 trillion in disbursements, including federal salaries and Social Security.
SpaceX and Tesla did not respond to Fortune’s requests for comment.
The clock is ticking
The 130-day time limit set for special government employees could explain Musk’s blitz of action in the two weeks following Trump’s inauguration. Musk said Monday the U.S. Agency for International Development, a foreign assistance agency that provided $6.5 billion in aid last year, would be “shutting down,” though Democrats have argued a presidential administration does not have the constitutional authority to eliminate entire agencies. Some 100 USAID staffers were placed on administrative leave.
A team from DOGE, including four staffers under the age of 30, reportedly clashed with a USAID security official, who refused to give the staffers access to a room with sensitive materials. After making a call to Musk—who told the USAID official he would involve the U.S. Marshals Service, should his team not have access to the secure information—the staffers were reportedly able to have at least partial access to the secure room.
The confrontation came a week after Trump’s administration offered 2 million federal employees eight months of severance in exchange for their resignation. The memo outlining the incentive was entitled “Fork in the Road,” and mirrors the name and sentiment of a memo Musk sent to employees of X, then called Twitter, ahead of slashing the social media platform’s workforce by 80%.
Musk’s sweeping changes have unsettled some of Trump’s officials. Two anonymous White House officials told the New York Times they have been caught unaware of Musk’s plans, and another official said Musk is operating with an uncontrollable amount of autonomy.
Musk also claims to be sleeping in the DOGE office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. It’s a practice he engaged in at Tesla as early as 2018. Musk encouraged his employees to do the same in order to ensure the timely rollout of his electric vehicles.
“We’ll be sleeping on the [manufacturing] line, practically. Not practically, we will be,” he said in an earnings call last January.
Sleeping in his office would help Musk maximize his 130 days, as an October 2024 memo issued by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics did not set a clear hour limit for a day of service.
Musk’s long leash
Despite Musk’s seemingly around-the-clock work schedule, the enforcement of the special government employee’s 130-day rule appears lax, with no explicit penalties for going beyond it.
“If an SGE unexpectedly serves more than 130 days, they remain an SGE for the remainder of that period,” according to a March 2024 ethics briefing from the U.S. Department of Commerce. “But, during the next 365-day period, the appointing official should reevaluate whether the SGE should still be designated as an SGE.”
For now, Musk is operating with a long leash, but Trump said Monday he would consider shortening it should it not align with Trump’s vision. The president said though Musk has access to the Treasury payment systems, he would be unable to stop payments without his approval.
"Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval,” Trump said. “And we'll give him the approval, where appropriate; where not appropriate, we won't.”
