Elon Musk‘s reported spending of $250 million on Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign in 2024 paid off and how! After Trump’s big win in the elections, the tech billionaire was appointed as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Lately, Musk has been meddling way too much in Trump’s administration and global politics, which even concerned Bill Gates. A White House employee has anonymously confirmed that Elon Musk is working as Trump’s special government employee.
@DOGE & DOGE Jr pic.twitter.com/37dDwCqJhN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 5, 2024
Quoting the official, Business Standard reported that Musk not only has a government email address but also has a dedicated office space within the White House. Musk’s role in Trump’s government notably came to light when the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was abruptly shut down on Monday.
A total of 606 people employed with USAID were put on administrative leave while 791 personal service contracts were terminated. The independent agency of the US government was responsible for administrating civilian foreign aid and funds for development.
As the new head of DOGE, Elon Musk aims to shut down several government departments. Though USAID was shut with Trump and Musk collectively, the President has ensured that Musk’s role in the administration would be very limited.
While addressing the reporters, Trump said that Elon Musk “can’t” and “won’t do” anything without “our approval.”
The president added, “We’ll give him approval where appropriate, and where not appropriate we won’t.” He asserted that if there’s a conflict of interest with Elon Musk’s companies “we won’t let him go near it.”
DOGE was formed on January 20, 2025, when Donald Trump sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. The temporary organization has been tasked to reduce wasteful spending and to “modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity”.
Elon Musk’s DOGE team was recently given access to federal government’s payment system and the first thing he did was to shut down USAID. As his influence in politics raised concern, Trump told the reporters, “Elon got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good if we agree with him” and “it’s only if we agree with him” he emphasized.
Trump today on Elon Musk: “Elon got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good if we agree with him and it’s only if we agree with him; Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval. And we’ll give him the approval where appropriate, and where not… pic.twitter.com/UOcmxTkgBM
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 3, 2025
While assuring people that Musk can’t do anything without his approval, he went on to praise his efforts in reducing the costs. He said, “They are finding a tremendous amount of waste, really waste more than anything else I think you could say. Probably fraud and abuse can be added to that,” Trump added as he cited example of $100 million used for condoms to Hamas and other countries.
While limiting Musk’s access, Trump is sure that the billionaire would make wise decisions. Praising the Tesla CEO, the President said, “He is a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs and we put him in charge of seeing what he could do with certain groups and certain numbers”.
