Elon Musk changed his X bio to “White House Tech Support” overnight, seemingly making light of an unfolding situation in which he has access to vital federal systems and the workforce that supports them despite heading up a “department” that isn’t an official US agency.
Musk’s official title is “special government employee” (SGE) within the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
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That may sound like a made-up title, but SGEs are legit and cover “an officer or employee…who is appointed to perform temporary duties, with or without compensation, for a period not to exceed 130 days during any period of 365 consecutive days.”
Ironically, it’s part of the US Code that covers “bribery, graft, and conflicts of interest”—something Musk critics have voiced concern about given that he is CEO of SpaceX, which has secured many lucrative defense contracts. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, plans to introduce the Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy (ELON MUSK) Act, which would require federal agencies to terminate any contracts held by an SGE, “similar to bans for Members of Congress and other federal employees.”
“After more than $20 billion in federal contracts, there’s no way Musk can be objective in what he’s doing,” Rep. Pocan says.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also argues that “Musk’s enormous business operations in China [with Tesla] endangers US cybersecurity and creates conflicts of interest that make his access to [US government] systems a national security risk.”
When asked about conflicts of interest today, Leavitt said it’s up to Musk to self-report. “If Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts,” she said.
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SGE vs. Administrator vs. Agency Head
In his executive order establishing DOGE, President Trump said it would be “headed by” a USDS Administrator “established in the Executive Office of the President who shall report to the White House Chief of Staff.” The temporary position runs for 18 months, ending on July 4, 2026.
It also says that “each Agency Head shall establish within their respective Agencies a DOGE Team of at least four employees, which may include Special Government Employees, hired or assigned within thirty days of the date of this Order.”
These DOGE teams sound more like the young engineers Musk has recruited to help with the effort, as first reported by Wired. DOGE is not an official US agency—the term agency “does not include the Executive Office of the President or any components thereof,” the EO says. So, Musk cannot be an agency head.
Trump’s EO also renames the existing United States Digital Service (USDS) to the United States DOGE Service. The USDS was founded in 2014 by former President Barack Obama following the buggy rollout of healthcare.gov. Obama pitched it as a “small team of America’s best digital experts [who] will 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.”
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Since then, the USDS administrator role has switched between a political appointee and a career appointee several times, depending on the administration, NextGov reports. The most recent USDS Administrator, Mina Hsiang, left at the end of President Biden’s term.
As NPR notes, Trump hasn’t yet named an administrator for the DOGE version of USDS.
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White House Tech Support
(Credit: X/Elon Musk)
Then there’s “White House Tech Support,” a cheeky description that has some truth to it. The DOGE executive order lists “modernizing government-wide software, network infrastructure, and information technology (IT) systems” as its primary goal. But so far, DOGE has not reported any technical updates or new IT services.
Musk has thus far focused on government spending. His team pushed for the shutdown of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Its website and social media accounts were taken offline, and employees were locked out of emails. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk posted on X early Monday.
Bill Gates later condemned the effort, saying it could result in “millions of deaths.” The agency’s $40 billion budget primarily goes toward humanitarian work, such as eradicating poverty and disease, in countries like Ukraine and Ethiopia, NBC News reports.
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Musk claims USAID is a “radical-left political psy op” and accused Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)—who protested the cuts outside USAID HQ this week—of supporting USAID because “he wants his kickbacks and bribes to continue.” Raskin called that a “defamatory lie” and said Musk’s financial reports should be made public.
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Musk later posted that DOGE checked “to see which federal organizations were violating the @POTUS executive orders the most. Turned out to be USAID, so that became our focus.”
Musk has some history with USAID. In 2022, the agency spent almost $2 million on Starlink terminals for Ukraine, Quartz reports. More recently, The Lever noted that the USAID inspector general was investigating that deal.
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Executive Editor for News
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