Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is likely to get office space in the West Wing, bringing him closer to President Trump as Mr. Musk is leading a project that aims to cut up to $2 trillion in government spending, two people with knowledge of the planning said Monday.
Mr. Musk was expected to be in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is on the White House complex, but not in the West Wing. But for several days now he has been asking about his level of access, signaling a desire for closeness to Mr. Trump, according to the people.
Mr. Trump wanted Mr. Musk has the space, said one of the people. Mr. Musk has received a badge for the White House compound and was said to be working there on Monday. He has filled out the paperwork to apply for the role and already has a government email address.
Trump officials and an official at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the spending-cutting task force headed by Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Musk spent time Sunday at rocket company SpaceX’s Washington headquarters before speaking at the inauguration of Mr. Trump on Monday. His government team has spent much of the past two months at the company’s downtown offices, along with a number of engineers who hail from Silicon Valley and plan to spread across the federal government, with the goal of placing about two in every major agency.
At least some of those employees sport navy blue mesh baseball caps with all-white capital letters that say “DOGE,” as Mr.’s work is informally known. Mask
Many aspects related to the efforts of Mr. Masks are shrouded in secrecy. It remains unclear whether he will become a “special government employee” on his plan to propose dramatic cuts to federal programs. The Department of Government Effectiveness is not an official department.
His allies have been mulling over his options for the past few weeks, trying to ensure he is minimally constrained by the laws of morality. The issue of the formal status of Mr. Musk has legal ramifications because different rules apply when government work is performed by private individuals or by officials.
The various legal categories include conflict-of-interest restrictions for government officials that could be significant given that Mr. Musk has billions of dollars in government contracts and requirements about when discussions can remain confidential or must be held in public view that could affect development and reaction to his proposed cuts.
Mr. Musk has already played a major role in placing staff across the federal government, including in areas that overlap with his businesses. His allies are interviewing candidates for senior positions in agencies such as the Pentagon and the State Department. And Mr. Musk has personally weighed in on the lead roles. He successfully lobbied to select Troy Meine as Air Force secretary, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation.
Mr. Meink ran the Pentagon’s National Reconnaissance Office, which helped Mr. Musk to secure a multi-billion dollar contract for SpaceX to help build and develop a spy satellite network for the federal government.
Priority for Mr. Musk has been avoiding enacting a law requiring advisory committees that include private individuals to conduct their work in public view. Becoming a special civil servant could be a step in that direction.
While special civil servants must complete financial disclosure forms, this status comes with more flexible rules than those required of regular employees. Specifically, Mr. Musk, one of the top financial backers of Mr. Trump, could avoid any public release of such information if he were not paid.
A federal ethics law designed to prevent conflicts of interest generally makes it a crime for any government employees, including special temporary employees, to participate in official matters in which they, their families, or their organizations have a financial interest.
SpaceX has contracts with the government to send astronauts and satellites into space. Electric car company Tesla of Mr. Musk is influenced by government policies such as subsidies to encourage more production of batteries and chargers within the United States and to make it easier for consumers to buy such vehicles.
Under the terms of the Ethics Act, however, Mr. Trump could exempt Mr. Mask this limit by granting it a written waiver.
Despite the limitations that come with official status, if not only Mr. Musk but all of his staff members on the project become regular or special civil servants, the effort could avoid triggering other legal issues. Many recruits for the cost-cutting project are expected to be formal members of existing departments rather than special civil servants.
Specifically, the project may avoid the Federal Advisory Commission Act, which regulates boards, commissions, boards and other types of commissions that work with people outside the government to advise the executive branch.
This law says that all meetings of such committees must be held in public and all documents submitted to or produced by such a committee are also supposed to be available to the public.
