(Adnkronos) – Elon Musk will have his own office in the White House complex, from where he will lead the department for government efficiency that Donald Trump has entrusted to him. This is what the New York Times reveals, explaining that the richest man in the world, who owns companies that have billion-dollar contracts with the federal government, will have his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, a building adjacent to the White House that houses government offices.
The location, the newspaper points out, citing two sources familiar with the matter, will allow Musk to continue to have significant access to the tycoon after he takes office next Monday. The billionaire has reportedly already inquired with transition officials about the type of access he will have to the West Wing, but it is not yet clear what kind of response he received. Staff members must have a special pass to freely enter the wing where the Oval Office and other presidential spaces are located.
After donating hundreds of millions of dollars to help Trump win the election, especially with a grassroots campaign in key states, where he literally poured money on voters in exchange for supporting a pro-Maga petition, Musk has been a fixture alongside the president-elect from November 5 to date.
In recent months, the tech billionaire, who has often stayed overnight in one of the cottages available for rent on the Mar-a-Lago estate, has participated in official meetings and at least one of Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders. And he has played an active, and according to some insistent, role in the selection process of ministers and staff, which, according to the American media, has not failed to create tensions and problems with Trump’s entourage of advisers.
It is unclear whether Vivek Ramaswamy, the other billionaire, a former Republican primary candidate who was put in charge of the Doge, will also have an office at the helm of the Doge, the acronym for the department entrusted to Musk that in reality it will not be a department in the true sense of the word, that is authorized by Congress as an effective part of the government.
The hybrid nature of the office has raised a host of issues about having outsiders, one of whom is the richest man in the world, tasked with helping make government more efficient, promising to use the ax on government spending. Just think that the staff already chosen for the Doge at the moment is working in the spaces that Musk’s company SpaceX has in Washington. And the work that is being carried out at the moment appears shrouded in secrecy, with the transition team having revealed little or nothing about how the Doge will work or how it will be funded.
Not to mention that the biggest unknown remains unanswered, what will be the status of Musk who according to some members of the transition staff could be defined as a “special government employee”, a position that could be paid or not, even if very probably the billionaire will give up his salary, and could be more flexible as regards the declaration of his personal finances than that required of other federal employees.
This certainly, the Times points out, does not eliminate the most important problem, that of conflict of interest, given that all government employees, particularly special temporary ones, cannot be part of official matters in which they, their families or companies have financial interests. Considering that Musk’s companies have various contracts with the federal government, based on these rules, the Doge should not be able to deal with issues related to these contracts.
In any case, if Musk and his collaborators become special government employees, they will have to file their financial statements, although, especially if they decide to give up their salaries, the Trump administration could impose secrecy on this documentation. Musk, however, sources close to the billionaire say, has not yet decided whether to accept the status of special government employee with the obligations it entails, including that of complying with the laws that guarantee the transparency of government acts.
