Elon Musk likes to talk about transparency. But a major story my colleagues published today shows how he baked secrecy into his Department of Government Efficiency from the start.
When devising a plan to overhaul the federal bureaucracy, Musk and his advisers deliberately designed an organizational structure that they thought would be outside the purview of federal public records laws, my colleagues wrote:
The operation would take over the U.S. Digital Service, which had been housed within the Office of Management and Budget, and would become a stand-alone entity in the executive office of the president. Mr. Musk would not be named the DOGE administrator, but rather an adviser to Mr. Trump in the White House.
White House advisers, unlike employees at other departments in the executive branch, are covered under executive privilege and typically do not have to disclose their emails or records immediately.
Now that secrecy is emerging as a key legal target in the courts.
Several lawsuits filed in recent weeks are pushing the administration to be more transparent about Musk’s and his initiative’s activities. They argue that the administration is violating the nation’s public records laws, and in some cases they are essentially asking judges to determine that the department is an agency that’s subject to those laws.
“These lawsuits are essentially saying you can’t have an agency that’s this powerful, that’s making these enormous decisions, that’s also entirely secret and cut off from the public,” said Jonathan Shaub, a law professor at the University of Kentucky who advised President Biden on matters of executive privilege.
That privilege is vast, and entities like the National Security Council have successfully drawn protections from it by arguing that their officials simply advise the president, who makes the final decisions. Some legal experts think that could be a harder case to make about the Department of Government Efficiency.
It could all turn on the question of how much power Musk really has — an issue that came up in a hearing in another lawsuit in Washington today — and what his department really is.
“This is just operating so outside the normal procedures of how large government entities operate when they have some control over policies, personnel and appropriations,” said Mark Rozell, the dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and an expert on executive privilege.
MEANWHILE on X
Musk on the testy Oval Office meeting
You have probably seen the clips of the remarkable meeting today between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Musk was following the episode, too. Here’s the latest on his X posts from my colleague Kate Conger:
On Friday, Musk celebrated the confrontation between Trump and Zelensky with a blitz of posts.
Musk has been critical of American aid to Ukraine, even while the country’s military depends on his satellite internet service, Starlink, for much of its communications. And after the Oval Office meeting grew tense, with Vice President JD Vance telling Zelensky that he ought to thank Trump for his support, Musk quickly shared videos of the conversation.
The billionaire shared a clip of Trump commenting on Zelensky’s more casual apparel, adding flame and laughing emojis. He agreed with Trump’s statement that Europe should contribute more funds to NATO, calling it “logical.” And he shared videos of Trump telling Zelensky to be “thankful” for U.S. support.
The barrage of posts showed off Musk’s role as a one-man messaging machine for the Trump administration. Rarely does a day pass without Musk commenting on the Washington news of the moment to his 219 million followers. It’s a long way from the wide-ranging conversations he engaged in last year, before endorsing Trump in July and making his X feed a running commentary on politics.
— Kate Conger
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“People will die, but we will never know, because even the programs to count the dead are cut.”
That’s Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, the executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center, talking about the funding cuts for some 5,800 projects that had been financed by the United States Agency for International Development.
Musk’s team identified the agency as an area of wasteful spending; it has now essentially been shut down. My colleague Stephanie Nolen laid out some of the projects that she confirmed to have been canceled. Check out Stephanie’s list.
BY THE NUMBERS
22
The number of employees of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, as well as leaders and allies of the group, who have ties to his companies, including X, SpaceX and the Boring Company, according to a tally by my colleagues.
They identified at least 50 people who are working on Musk’s efforts to shake up the government.
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An update on the retirement cave
In a recent edition of this newsletter, my colleague David Fahrenthold took you inside the Pennsylvania cave where thousands of federal workers’ retirement records — paper records — are stored. Musk held up the bizarre facility as an example of the waste and inefficiency he’s trying to fix.
As it turns out, Musk has put a fellow tech billionaire on the case. Joe Gebbia, a founder of Airbnb and a close friend of Musk’s, says he is working with Musk’s initiative — as a volunteer.
