Trump Again Claims He Put Musk ‘In Charge’ Of DOGE, Contradicting His Own DOJ

The statement could help the Trump critics who've sued to stop job cuts and contract cancellations, on the grounds that Musk does not have authority to make those calls.

President Donald Trump Wednesday evening again asserted that he put billionaire Elon Musk “in charge” of his “Department of Government Efficiency,” contradicting his own Department of Justice, which is claiming that Musk is merely a White House adviser with no authority.

“I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency and put a man named Elon Musk in charge,” Trump said at a Saudi Arabian financial conference in Miami Beach, with Musk sitting in the audience. “Thank you, Elon, for doing it. And he’s doing a great job.”

Musk has repeatedly claimed that he and his band of assistants who are currently rampaging through various federal agency computer systems have found “fraud” and “corruption,” and that as a result he has canceled contracts, laid off staff and even eliminated agencies.

Trump’s remarks will likely provide yet more evidence for the Trump critics who have been filing legal challenges against DOGE’s layoffs and cancellations of contracts and grants, on the grounds that Musk’s efforts to cut the government are illegal because Musk has no actual authority to make those decisions. To counter that argument, DOJ lawyers filed an affidavit from a White House official on Monday stating that, to the contrary, Musk is just a White House adviser among many and that he is not in charge of DOGE. DOGE’s actual administrator, who to this point has not been identified, is the person actually making the cuts, the DOJ has argued.

“Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” wrote Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration. “Mr. Musk is an employee in the White House office. He is not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service. ... Musk is not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator.”