Elon Musk’s DOGE plan is in turmoil

Elon Musk’s plan for the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may be in disarray following a number of changes to the initiative in recent days.

Bill McGinley, who was appointed DOGE’s legal counsel in December, is planning to return to the private sector, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

In a statement to the newspaper, McGinley did not mention Musk but said: “I support President Trump, Vice President Vance, and the great teams in the White House and across the administration 100%.”

The White House has been contacted for comment via email. Musk has been contacted via email to X (formerly Twitter), the social media platform he owns.

Why It Matters

McGinley’s planned departure comes on the heels of Vivek Ramaswamy‘s exit amid reports of a rift with Musk and other incoming staff. Trump had tapped billionaires Musk and Ramaswamy to head DOGE, a nongovernmental task force assigned to find ways to slash federal spending and make the federal government more efficient.

But among the executive orders Trump signed on his first day in office was one that officially integrated DOGE into the federal government. The order renamed the U.S. Digital Service as the U.S. DOGE Service. The Digital Service was created by President Barack Obama in 2014 to modernize the government’s approach to technology.

DOGE has already drawn lawsuits challenging its operations.

What To Know

Trump’s executive order said DOGE’s aim was “to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

That is a much narrower goal than the sweeping mission, which Musk has touted, to massively slash spending and overhaul the federal government.

Musk and Ramaswamy pledged in an op-ed published by the Journal in November to significantly trim the federal budget and oversee “mass headcount reductions across the federal bureaucracy.”

Musk said in October that he could cut the federal budget by “at least $2 trillion”—a figure that amounts to about a third of total annual government spending, which budget experts dismissed as unrealistic.

In an interview earlier this month, Musk backtracked on that goal. He said that achieving it would be the “best-case outcome” but that there was a “good shot” of trimming the budget by $1 trillion.

Trump’s order also established a temporary organization within DOGE that will be overseen by an administrator who will report to the White House chief of staff. However, the order does not mention Musk, and the administration has not said if he will formally join the government as part of his work on the initiative.

His involvement could raise questions about whether he is violating federal conflict-of-interest laws unless he divests his businesses—which include X, Tesla and SpaceX—or recuses himself from government matters involving them.

Musk, the world’s richest person, has become part of Trump’s inner circle since spending more than $100 million to help him win the election. But his recent criticism of a new artificial intelligence initiative shortly after Trump announced it is unlikely to sit well with the president, who prizes loyalty highly. Musk has also faced accusations of performing a Nazi salute during Trump’s inauguration.

What People Are Saying

Donald Trump said in his inaugural speech on Monday: “To restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government, my administration will establish the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency.”

What’s Next

As DOGE begins its operations within the the Executive Office of the President, how involved Musk will be is not yet known.