The White House said in a court filing on Monday that right wing billionaire Elon Musk is not the person in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in fact, they argued he’s not even a part of it at all.
In a three-page declaration, Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House’s Office of Administration, revealed that Musk’s title is “senior adviser to the president,” a role in which he has “no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.”
“He is not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service or U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization,” reads the sworn statement by Fisher. “Mr. Musk is not the U.S. DOGE, Service Administrator.”
Fisher also compared Musk’s role to that of Anita Dunn, who served as senior advisor to former President Joe Biden.
“In his role as a Senior Advisor to the President, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors,” Fisher said. “Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself. Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President’s directives.”
The filing directly contradicts Trump who has repeatedly characterized Musk as the leader of DOGE, the task force he created ostensibly to find fraud and waste in the federal government.
Fisher did not say who is DOGE’s administrator, just that it is not Musk.
The filing came in response to a lawsuit by several Democratic state attorneys general, accusing Trump violating the Appointments Clause of the Constitution by illegally delegating executive powers to Musk.
The filing will raised more questions about DOGE that even Trump administration officials cannot answer.
At a court hearing on Friday about DOGE’s access to sensitive Treasury Department records, Christopher Healy, senior adviser to the Treasury Department’s general counsel was asked who runs DOGE , his response, “I don’t know the answer to that.”
