Trump Tells Press to Call Elon Musk 'Whatever You Want' After Court Filings Reveal He's Not a DOGE Employee

President Donald Trump seemed to avoid questions when asked by journalists about billionaire Elon Musk's official position within the Department of Government Efficiency, the federal department that the Tesla CEO supposedly heads.

Previously, the Trump administration has made multiple references to Musk, a close personal ally of the president, as a "special employee" and the "head of DOGE."

"Elon Musk is. Yeah. Yeah, Elon is to me a patriot. So, you know, you could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want. But he's a patriot," Trump said while speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.

He then diverted the topic of focus to policy issues, speaking about his stance on the ongoing war in Ukraine and curtailing Social Security.

The questioning comes amid a recent court filing signed by the director of the Office of Administration at the White House, Joshua Fisher, indicating that Musk is nothing more than an advisor to the President, with no authority to make decisions on his own.

"In his role as a Senior Advisor to the President, Mr. Musk has no greater authority
than other senior White House advisors. Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself. Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President's directives," the filing reads.

In fact, according to the filing, Musk is "an employee in the White House Office. He is
not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service or U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization."

Last year, shortly after winning the presidential election, Trump released a statement naming Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as DOGE's leaders.

"I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency ("DOGE")," Trump wrote. Ramaswamy has since left his position within the department, having entered the gubernatorial race in Ohio.

"Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the "Save America" Movement." he continued.

As an unelected private citizen, many people, including federal employees, have voiced concerns about Musk's access to confidential federal data and information. Five former Treasury secretaries went as far as to publish a joint op-ed in the New York Times warning against DOGE's access to sensitive data, indicating that information about the US federal payment system has historically only been accessed by "a very small group of nonpartisan career civil servants," and that providing such access to "political actors" undermines the constitutional precedent the government abides by.

"While significant data privacy, cybersecurity and national security threats are gravely concerning, the constitutional issues are perhaps even more alarming," they wrote.

"We take the extraordinary step of writing this piece because we are alarmed about the risks of arbitrary and capricious political control of federal payments, which would be unlawful and corrosive to our democracy."

Originally published by Latin Times.