On Thursday, February 13, 2025, fourteen states sued Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The coalition of more than a dozen states argues that Musk’s position as the head of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, is unconstitutional because Congress did not confirm his position.
“Mr. Musk’s seemingly limitless and unchecked power to strip the government of its workforce and eliminate entire departments with the stroke of a pen or click of a mouse would have been shocking to those who won this country’s independence,” the lawsuit asserts.
“There is no office of the United States, other than the President, with the full power of the Executive Branch, and the sweeping authority now vested in a single unelected and unconfirmed individual is antithetical to the nation’s entire constitutional structure.”
On Monday, January 20, 2025, Trump signed a slew of executive orders, one of which established DOGE.
“This Executive Order establishes the Department of Government Efficiency to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” the executive order reads.
Shortly thereafter, Trump fulfilled his campaign promise of appointing Musk as the head of DOGE. Meanwhile, his other appointees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, and Tulsi Gabbard, underwent the process of being confirmed by Congress. Instead, Musk was given the status of a special government employee (SGE). SGEs can work in the executive branch, legislative branch, and independent federal agencies for 130 days out of a 365-day period. However, they can work for multiple years.
In its first month, DOGE has terminated several government contracts and grants and been critical of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Musk argues that the department is working to be transparent and limit spending, but critics contend he is doing the opposite and spreading misinformation instead.
In late January, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Trump declared they had stopped $50 million from being used to “buy condoms for Hamas.” However, the White House provided no evidence to support these claims. Instead, records reportedly show the U.S. has provided $83.5 million for a program in Gaza, Mozambique, designed to improve “prevention, care, support and treatment interventions within HIV and TB facilities and communities.” Furthermore, the agency that granted the funding, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), told BBC that “no money has been used to procure condoms.”
More recently, Musk appeared in the Oval Office for press availability with Trump. During the presser, Musk said, “We actually are trying to be as transparent as possible. In fact, our actions — we post our actions to the DOGE handle on X and to the DOGE website. So all of our actions are maximally transparent. In fact, I don’t think there’s been — I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.” However, DOGE is reportedly exempt from public records law for nearly a decade; Musk’s financial disclosure will not be made public, and several of the claims shared on DOGE’s X account have been deemed “misleading” by several media outlets.
Despite concerns raised by states, members of Congress, and media outlets, Musk remains the head of DOGE. Moving forward, Musk believes entire agencies may need to be removed to improve efficency.
“I think we do need to delete entire agencies, as opposed to leave part of them behind,” Musk said. “Because if you leave part of them behind … it’s kind of like leaving a weed. If you don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back. But if you remove the roots of the weed, it doesn’t stop weeds from ever growing back, but it makes it harder.”
