Elon Musk Says Some DOGE Workers Are Federal Employees

Some working for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are “federal employees,” Elon Musk said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that aired on Tuesday night.

The Context

It’s not clear how many DOGE employees are classified as “federal” workers. The Trump administration has previously said that some people who work for the White House task force are “special government employees.”

What To Know

“Nobody at DOGE gets paid a penny, correct?” Hannity asked Musk.

“Well, actually, some people are federal employees,” the SpaceX CEO replied. “But it’s fair to say that the software engineers at DOGE could be earning millions of dollars a year and instead are earning a small fraction of that as federal employees.”

President Donald Trump, who sat for the interview alongside Musk, also brought the billionaire on as a “special government employee.”

The Justice Department defines a special government employee as someone who “works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period,” with or without being paid.

The full scope of Musk’s role, which is not congressionally authorized, became even murkier this week after the White House said in a legal filing that Musk is not the head of DOGE.

Musk is “an employee of the White House Office” and “holds a position as a non-career Special Government Employee,” the filing said. “Like other senior White House advisors, Mr Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.”

“Mr. Musk is not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator,” the filing said.

Musk and DOGE are defendants in a bevy of lawsuits alleging that the Tesla CEO does not have the authority to purge government agencies and fire federal workers en masse.

A federal judge handed Musk a partial victory in one of the suits earlier Tuesday, as she denied a request from 14 states for a temporary restraining order blocking Musk from accessing sensitive information and firing government employees.

But U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan appeared open to considering whether Musk’s role altogether is unconstitutional.

“Plaintiffs legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight,” Chutkan wrote.

This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.