A map of the ethical minefield Elon Musk’s business interests create for the US government

CNN
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Elon Musk sits at the center of a galaxy of companies and pursuits while also taking point on President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal government.

Musk recently told nervous Tesla shareholders that he plans to continue working at his Department of Government Efficiency throughout Trump’s time in office, though he will dial back his full time work to a day or two each week starting this month. Trump told Musk at a Cabinet meeting in late April that: “You’ve really been a tremendous help… you’re invited to stay as long as you want.”

Musk’s daily involvement in government is winding down at a point when he claims to have cut an unverifiable $160 billion in government spending. But he hopes the DOGE ethos will live on in government as a “way of life, like Buddhism,” he told reporters.

That the world’s richest man and the president’s top campaign benefactor has been given the opportunity to make his mark across the government is an unprecedented thing in the history of the US.

Musk has bragged, unlike the Buddha, of literally taking a chainsaw to a bureaucracy that is intertwined with his businesses on many different levels.

His companies rely on government contracts and are regulated by government agencies. They’ve been investigated, sued and fined by government investigators.

Here’s an attempt to organize the ways that Trump administration actions could potentially benefit or impact Musk’s businesses, as identified in CNN reporting and raised by government watchdogs and Democrats during Musk’s short political career.

Democrats on Capitol Hill tried to put a price tag on fines and investigations Musk might potentially avoid as a result of the 2024 election, but their nearly $2.4 billion figure is highly speculative.

Trump has promised to personally oversee Musk’s actions while at DOGE.

“Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval. And we’ll give him the approval where appropriate. Where not appropriate, we won’t,” the president said back in February.

As a temporary special government employee, Musk can be employed up to 130 days in a 365-day period, but neither he nor the government have released ethics disclosures frequently required of top officials, and he has not separated himself from any of his business interests. It is not clear if there is an official capacity in which he’ll serve after May, but Musk said he will keep an office in the West Wing.

CNN’s inquiries to SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink and xAI, which owns the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, were not answered.