Washington (AP) – Elon Musk promised a clear promise after Donald Trump decided to make him responsible for making the government more effective.
“It will not be a kind of back room secret,” said Musk last year. “It gets as transparent as possible”, maybe even streamed live online.
It didn’t work that far.
In the three weeks since Republican President in the White House, Musk quickly integrated into federal authorities and at the same time avoided the public examination of his work. He did not answer any questions from journalists or visited hearings with the legislator. Employees of his so -called Ministry of Government Efficiency or Doge have triggered career officers in Washington.
It is a profound challenge not only for business-as-USAL within the federal government, which Trump sets on disorders, but also for consensus and transparency concepts that are fundamental in a democratic system. Musk describes himself as a “technical support of the White House” and he has embedded himself in an unorthodox administration, in which there are no recognizable limits for its influence.
Donald K. Sherman, Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that Trump had allowed Musk to “exercise unprecedented power and authority about government systems”, “maximum confidentiality and little to no-collecting”.
The White House insisted that Doge is “extremely transparent” and previously shared examples of his work, e.g. listed as 150 years ancient.
Trump, Musk and her allied bets that the American people support their efforts to wipe out excessive expenses, regardless of the concerns about how it is done. The President said on Friday that Muschus was “an enormous fraud and corruption and waste”. Trump was particularly enthusiastic about the efforts to close the US Agency for International Development, at which Musk worked to drop the financing.
When asked whether Musk should answer questions about his work publicly, the president said: “Oh sure.”
“He’s not shy,” said Trump. “Elon is not shy.”
This is true, at least to judge Musk’s social media in which no thought seems to be suppressed. His X account is a flood of Internet memes, attacks on critics and professions of loyalty to the president. He has made it clear the great scope of his ambitions, in which he spoke existential about the need to reverse the federal deficit, reduce state expenditure and have progressive programs.
“This administration has a chance of a large reform that may never come back,” he wrote on Saturday. “It’s now or never.”
Musk is used to doing things in his own way. The richest person in the world became wealthy with the online payment service PayPal and then founded the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the Rocket Company SpaceX. In recent times he bought Twitter and renamed it as X, shortened jobs and has recovered his culture.
He seems to be pursuing a similar approach to the federal government, but it can be stuck on his plans. For example, he has not explained how his team will apply the access to payment systems that contain sensitive data on people in the USA.
Much of DGES work takes place behind the scenes. The team members have appeared in the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Administrative Authority and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Your arrival will never be announced publicly, and the career workers are looking for unknown faces in the corridors over their shoulders.
In the educational department, the employees of Doge work from a conference room on the seventh floor, in which the secretary’s office is also housed.
Sheria Smith, President of a Federal Employees Union, who represents some employees of the agency, said it was unclear which internal systems of Musk team and for what reason were accessed.
“It is the lack of transparency that is alarming,” she said.
While long-standing employees are annoyed about their future, the workers of Doge became a ecstatic work.
“You don’t seem to answer anyone and don’t get involved in our agency,” said Smith.
Sometimes a rumor circulates that Muschus herself makes the end. But he was generally in the white house convoluted, where he has an office.
David Sacks, a Musk ally who works on questions of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency for the administration, said that he had come by to check the DOGE team.
“The whole room was full of young coders,” he said during the all-in podcast, in which sacks with three other risk capital providers take place. “The facilities that people don’t know what to do because they have never asked people to stay late on Friday evening.”
Journalists have put together the identities of people who work for Doge and discover a squad of newborn acolyths with technology and technical backgrounds.
Some were previously employed by Musk’s companies and Musk said it was a crime to reveal their names. He has not cited a law that is broken by such disclosure.
It does not seem to be an inactive threat. Ed Martin, the preliminary US lawyer appointed by Trump in the capital of the nation, said last week: “We will pursue all legal steps against someone who hindered her work or threatens her people.”
Martin followed on Friday to thank Musk that they have transferred suspects who “steal government property and/or endangered the government. No additional information was provided by Martin’s office or the White House.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright defended DOGES work and said in a CNBC interview on Friday that members of the Musk team are like “Young advisors for arms administrations to take a critical look at how things are going.”
“You are part of a team compiled by Doge, friends in Elons wider circle who are very good in it and very well in systems,” said Wright.
It took more than two weeks after Trump’s inauguration had found on January 20 that Musk had officially joined the administration as the government of the government. The White House said Musk would submit a financial disclosure report, but it is kept secret. Due to the extensive business interests of Musk, the report would probably be the most extensive that have ever been put together.
It is unclear whether Musk, like other federal workers, will swore an oath in the constitution. Although Trump promised that Musk stays away from areas in which he has a conflict of interest, no details were given on how to evaluate this. A test of this agreement could take place soon, with Musk checking the expenditure in the Pentagon, where SpaceX has contracts in billions for satellites in orbit.
Democrats about the committee for supervision and the government reform of the government reform tried to issue a summons to testify Musk, but the efforts were blocked by Republicans.
“Who is this not elected billionaire that he can try to dismantle federal authorities, to dismiss people, to transfer them, to retire at an early stage and to have a comprehensive reform or changes to agencies without checking, monitoring or agreement with congress? ” said MP Gerald Connolly from Virginia, the top democrat of the committee.
The Democratic Chairman of the House, Hakeem Jeffries from New York, said that the Republicans had “offered an unchecked, out of control, billionaire marionet master”.
Trump said he was still responsible for Musk and said: “I will tell him that he should go here, go there, he does it.”
He also supported Musk’s aggressive approach.
“We have to take some of these things apart to find corruption,” he said.
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Collin Binkley and Fatima Hussein, Associated Press Writers, contributed to this report.
