While concerns were already swirling about Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration, the first potential conflict of interest has popped up.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (which he runs with Vivek Ramaswamy) put out the call Thursday for “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.” As appealing as that job might sound (oh, it’s seemingly unpaid also), the potential conflict came in the instructions about how to apply.
Potential applicants are being instructed to send their resumes to the DOGE account on X via direct message. Under Musk’s changes to that platform, however, only premium subscribers are able to send DMs to the DOGE account. Those run from $8 to $16 per month.
Put another way: To even be considered for a role in the department (and the site said only the top 1% of resumes will be reviewed by Musk and Ramaswamy), applicants will have to make a financial contribution to one of Musk’s businesses.
That’s just the potential tip of the iceberg, of course. For example, Musk also runs SpaceX, which has contracts with the federal government.
While Musk has said “all actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency,” it’s unclear if the two leaders of it will have to file financial disclosures. And the potential for one or both doing away with government regulations that impact their businesses has ethicists concerned.
“If Musk and Ramaswamy are in a position where they can influence governmental decisions and if some of those decisions could impact their businesses, then there could be a danger of illegal conflicts of interest,” Noah Bookbinder, the president of Citizens for Responsible Ethics told ABC News. “Other laws and rules could also be at issue today depending on what they do and how this ‘Department’ works.”
Representatives for X and the Trump transition team didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.