Elon Musk’s role as a ‘special government employee’ in Donald Trump’s White House has raised fears over his involvement in the US government. Giving him this title has solidified his role in the administration but sidestepped some disclosure rules that are typical for federal workers. The world’s richest man has been granted power by the president to reduce the size of the federal government – but is he silently taking over?.

Yesterday, the headquarters of the US Agency for International Development was abruptly shut down, and Musk’s team, known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has also received access to sensitive payment systems at the US Treasury Department. There are growing fears that Musk is consolidating power within the federal government, acting without accountability and potentially against the law.

It is unclear how standard rules on ethics agreements and financial disclosures will apply to Musk, who has billions of dollars in federal contracts with SpaceX, his rocket company. Multiple concerns have already been raised about his involvement in the US government. Musk’s DOGE team has managed to get control over the Office of Personnel Management and General Services Administration, two high-profile government departments.

It also attempted to access files marked as classified at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). When employees of the USAID flagged the wrongful attempt to access the classified files, they were put on leave, according to an investigation from WIRED. DOGE also has access to every American’s Social Security number, medicare benefits and the system which is used to pay government contractors.

Musk has also gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, which houses the sensitive information of millions of citizens, businesses and more. He’s done so in an attempt to cut down on government payments. But this move has worried lawmakers. Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute told NBC: ‘It’s a potential constitutional crisis. ‘Someone with as much power as Elon Musk has should be Senate-confirmed. There needs to be some accountability to Congress and the voters.’.

Musk has claimed the system has been used to make fraudulent payments, citing $50,000,000 of ‘taxpayer money’ being sent to the Gaza Strip for condoms. That statement was false. There is no evidence for it, according to the Associated Press. The most controversial of Musk’s moves has been the attempt to shut down USAID. Employees were instructed to stay out of the organisation’s Washington headquarters, and officers blocked Democratic legislators from entering the lobby on Monday.

It comes after Trump ordered a freeze on foreign assistance, with widespread effects around the world. The moves by the US, the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid, have upended decades of policy that put humanitarian, development and security assistance at the centre of efforts to build alliances and counter adversaries including China and Russia. Musk, who is leading an extraordinary civilian review of the federal government with Mr Trump’s agreement, said early on Monday that he had spoken with the president about the six-decade-old US aid and development agency and ‘he agreed we should shut it down’.

Musk, Trump and some Republican legislators have targeted the agency, which oversees humanitarian, development and security programmes in 120 countries, in increasingly strident terms, accusing it of promoting liberal causes. It was formed by John F Kennedy in 1961 to counter Soviet influence and run foreign assistance. Those ‘liberal causes’ include:. Metro has reached out to Musk for comment. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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