White House says Elon Musk serving as a ‘special government employee’

Elon Musk is serving in the Trump administration as a “special government employee,” according to a White House official.

It’s a designation that means Musk, the tech tycoon and fierce Trump ally whom President Donald Trump has launched on a cost-cutting mission across the federal government, is working neither as a volunteer nor a full-time employee. Special government employees are asked to abide by conflict of interest requirements and ethics policies that are typically less onerous than federal employees. As a temporary position, it bypasses some of the disclosure obligations required of full-time roles.

A person familiar with the role said that these types of employees can work up to 130 days in a calendar year and that the days can be split up (i.e. Musk can work half a day and that will only count as half a day).

Trump had tapped Musk to lead the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE,) which was formed after Trump renamed the U.S. Digital Service as the U.S. DOGE Service and established DOGE within the Executive Office of the President by executive order on his first day in office.

The executive order to reorganize USDS gave DOGE a mandate to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” and DOGE team members can include agency personnel or newly hired temporary staff who, like Musk, are designated as special government employees.

Musk’s SpaceX has won billions in government contracts with the federal government, which critics have said is a potential conflict of interest.

According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, special government employees are limited in how many days they can work each year, amounting to not “more than 130 days during any period of 365 days.”

Trump said Monday that Musk’s DOGE would not act without the White House’s approval and that Musk won’t always get his way.

“Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval, and we’ll give him the approval where appropriate, where not appropriate, we won’t,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “He reports in … But he does have a good natural instinct.”

Musk, the world’s richest man, has been quick to tout what he said is the political upside of cutting government spending, writing on X, his social media platform, on Monday, that “Nothing polls higher than cutting government spending.”

Musk has attacked foreign aid spending, calling the U.S. Agency for International Development a “crazy waste of money” and saying in comments in the early hours of Monday that he and Trump are “in the process” of shutting down the agency.

DOGE has already claimed credit for sweeping cuts, including $44.6 million in lease terminations for underutilized buildings, contracts related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility totaling $1 billion, and more than $40 billion to fund foreign aid.