Both Republicans and Democrats have a vested interest in exaggerating the power of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. Such bipartisanship, if you can call it that, is rare.
For Democrats, Musk is a literal Nazi operating a “shadow government” with complete control over every payment the federal government makes and access to every bit of data submitted to the IRS. For a party disliked by a record-high percentage of voters, Musk is an ideal target to cast as a villain setting out to dismantle the federal government in order to enrich himself.
For Republicans, Musk and his DOGE agents are liberators, striking devastating blows against a corrupt and decadent deep state that has escaped democratic accountability for far too long. Videos of government employees crying as DOGE operatives remove LGBTQ flags from the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development are part of a shock and awe strategy. The message to federal bureaucrats everywhere: obey President Donald Trump’s executive orders, or your agency will be next.
As unique a figure as the billionaire automotive, media, and astronautics mogul is, Musk’s role in the Trump administration is far from unprecedented, and his DOGE agency isn’t even new.
WHAT IS DOGE? WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY
Signed on Inauguration Day, Trump’s executive order “Establishing and Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency” simply renamed an existing White House entity called the United States Digital Service, expanded its mission, and directed each federal agency to designate four employees as “DOGE Team” members dedicated to implementing Trump’s agenda.
The Digital Service was created by former President Barack Obama in the wake of the debacle of the HealthCare.gov launch. It was tasked with recruiting “America’s best digital experts” to come to Washington and “work in collaboration with other government agencies to make websites more consumer-friendly, to identify and fix problems, and to help upgrade the government’s technology infrastructure.”
Originally housed in the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, by 2016, USDS was reporting to the deputy director of management at the Office of Management and Budget. While some of its staff have always been temporary, the USDS administrator has always been a full-time government employee who did not require confirmation by the Senate. Democrats did not mind this until now.
Musk, while functionally in charge of DOGE, is not its “administrator” even though Trump’s executive order does call for the hiring of a “USDS Administrator” and, crucially, requires all agency heads to select DOGE team members in consultation with the holder of that office.
It is unclear how long Trump will wait to hire a USDS administrator, but that will probably not come before Musk’s temporary term of no more than 130 days with the Trump administration ends.
To avoid federal regulations requiring substantial financial disclosures, the White House designated Musk a “special government employee,” which elevates him above a volunteer but below a full-time employee. The designation has existed by statute since 1962, and more than 40,000 of them currently serve in the executive branch. By law, they may only serve for 130 days or less in a 365-day period. Some presidents, such as former President Joe Biden, rehired special government employees for a second temporary term.
SGE examples from other agencies include specialized victim’s fund attorneys at the Department of Justice, nuclear scientists at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and public outreach specialists at the State Department. Anita Dunn recently served as Biden’s Senior Advisor to the President for Communications as an SGE.
Musk is not so much a shadow government puppet master or conquering hero as he is a glorified consultant. Even before Trump was sworn in, members of his transition team were asking Treasury officials for access to the department’s payment system. These requests were denied by acting Treasury Secretary David Lebryk, who was fired once current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was confirmed by the Senate. Musk pushed for his own pick for treasury secretary, Howard Lutnick, but Trump did not accede to Musk’s advice on that matter.
However, Bessent followed Trump’s DOGE executive order, designating four Treasury employees, approved by Musk, to act as DOGE team members within the Treasury. It is these Musk-approved Treasury employees who have since been granted access to the Treasury payment system by Bessent. Contrary to the alarmist tales spread by Democrats and their media allies, there has been no “hacking” involved. However, while Musk has helped recruit DOGE team members throughout the government, it is the agency heads and Trump who ultimately have the authority to hire and fire the employees.
When asked by reporters if Musk had direct access to Treasury data, Trump said on Tuesday, “Well, he’s 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.”
The buyout offered to more than two million federal employees follows a similar pattern. The email to federal employees read like the email Musk sent to Twitter staff when he first took over the company. It even had the same subject line (“A Fork in the Road”). However, the sender of the email was not Musk or DOGE but the Office of Personnel Management. Legalities about the specific terms of the OPM offer aside, OPM is the federal entity that has legal authority to make such an offer to federal employees, not DOGE, or Musk.
Similarly, there have been reports that some DOGE recruits have been using private emails to conduct government business or have not been disclosing their identities on government calls. Those are violations of federal law and should be addressed, but they are not a threat to the republic.
“The big-picture constitutional worry is that there is a kind of shadow executive branch that is existing and operating and exercising power outside of the channels of the Constitution and the statutes that Congress authorized,” Blake Emerson, a professor of constitutional law at UCLA School of Law, fretted to the Washington Post.
This is ridiculous. There is no shadow government threat to the Constitution or the separation of powers. Trump won the election. He has the right to nominate agency heads. Once confirmed by the Senate, those agency heads have the power to hire people who will execute Trump’s agenda. All Musk and DOGE are doing is helping those agency heads identify the proper personnel to carry out those tasks.
Trump’s DOGE executive order calls for each agency head to work with DOGE to form a DOGE team of agency employees consisting of “one DOGE Team Lead, one engineer, one human resources specialist, and one attorney.” There simply is nothing unconstitutional or shadowy about Musk consulting with agency heads to fill these positions.
Reportedly, many of the engineers identified by DOGE to embed as DOGE team representatives hired by the agencies are young 19- to 24-year-old men. As smart as these young men are, given their relative immaturity, it is almost guaranteed they will not follow federal regulations exactly. When regulations are ignored, you can be sure career employees will be there to let them know and leak to the press. A drumbeat of breached protocols will serve Democrats and Republicans well in advancing their preferred narratives.
These DOGE teams will also push the outer bounds of federal law on purpose, and when they do, there will be legal challenges. However, agency heads are sued all the time, and federal courts are used to dealing with these disputes. Just look at the lawsuit filed by government employee unions protesting DOGE access to the Treasury payment system. Neither DOGE nor Musk are listed as defendants, Bessent is. This fact underscores the perfectly legal nature of how DOGE is operating: its legal authority flows entirely through Trump and his Senate-approved agency head appointments. To the extent DOGE teams do go beyond federal law, it is the agency heads and, ultimately, Trump who are politically accountable, which is how the system is designed to operate.
A year from now, Treasury payments may be in meltdown. Hospitals, universities, and retirees could be up in arms because they haven’t been paid for months. Students and government employees could be complaining because their personal data was left vulnerable and compromised. In that case, Musk and DOGE will be considered failures, and Trump and the Republicans will be punished at the ballot box.
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Alternatively, a year from now, DOGE may have compiled a list of wasteful and fraudulent spending that they curtailed, totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. Federal agencies could be operating less expensively and more smoothly with fewer employees, all of whom come to the office five days a week. In that case, Musk and DOGE will be considered successes, and Republicans will have a strong midterm election.
Either way, what is happening in Washington is not the coup Democrats are making it out to be.