🍃The White House states that billionaire Elon Musk is not formally part of the Department of Government Efficiency team, instead serving as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump.
🐠Musk's exact role could be key in the legal fight over DOGE's access to government data as the Trump administration moves to lay off thousands of federal workers. Defining him as an advisor rather than the administrator in charge of day-to-day operations at DOGE could help the administration push back against a lawsuit arguing Musk has too much power for someone who isn't elected or Senate-confirmed.
ꦛThe declaration was filed on Monday as the Trump administration fends off the lawsuit from several Democratic states that want to block Musk and the DOGE team from accessing government systems.
💎"Musk is not a DOGE employee and has no actual authority to make government decisions himself," Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, said in court papers, as quoted by the Associated Press.
🔯The documents do not name the administrator of DOGE, whose work Musk has championed in posts on his social media platform X and in a public appearance at the White House.
🍸White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined on Tuesday to say who is leading DOGE.
൩"Layoffs are up to individual agency heads rather than DOGE," she said.
ꦓThe DOGE team has roamed from agency to agency, tapping into computer systems, digging into budgets, and searching for waste, fraud, and abuse, while lawsuits pile up claiming Trump and DOGE are violating the law. At least two are targeting Musk himself.
❀Last week, Musk called for the US to delete entire agencies from the federal government as part of the push to radically cut spending and restructure its priorities.
🦂US District Judge Tanya Chutkan seemed sceptical in a hearing on Monday when Justice Department lawyers asserted that Musk has no formal authority.
💯"I think you stretch too far. I disagree with you there," Chutkan said.
(With AP Inputs)
