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Elon Musk owns the country’s most successful electric car maker in Tesla. His SpaceX rocket company is one of NASA’s biggest contractors, relied upon to service the International Space Station. His social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, dominates public discourse.
Now, after spending more than $200 million to elect Donald Trump to a second term as president, the wealthiest man on earth has ensconced himself in the White House at the president’s side. He is serving as a policy advisor while his Department of Government Efficiency, popularly know as DOGE, scours the federal bureaucracy for $1 trillion in savings.
Elon Musk’s ties to the Trump administration pose potential conflicts of interest for his various businesses that have extensive contracts with the federal government.
But Musk’s growing involvement in the federal government’s business has raised questions about potential conflicts with his own companies, including SpaceX, which has billions of dollars in federal contracts.
DOGE has laid off thousands of federal employees, while President Trump fired or replaced Biden-era officials, including more than a dozen inspector generals, as multiple agencies or departments — from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — have been regulating or investigating Musk’s companies.
“I think the overall goals of Donald Trump and Elon Musk are to slash regulations, to slash budgets and to cut positions all with this claim they are going to increase efficiency and fight fraud,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a consumer rights group that published a report this month.
The group calculated the administration halted or moved to dismiss investigations against 89 corporations, including Musk’s companies, across multiple federal agencies.
“I would say it’s a smoke screen and cover for personal profit and corporate power — and that’s where Musk’s personal conflicts of interest come into play, as well as the other corporate actors across this government,” Gilbert added.
The Times reviewed the potential conflicts facing Musk and his companies that have been raised by Democratic members of Congress, including in a letter to President Trump and a report by the House Judiciary Committee, as well as by critics such as Public Citizen.
Musk did not respond to messages for comment, but last month in a joint interview with President Trump on Fox News, he said: “I’ll recuse myself if it is a conflict,” while the president said, “He won’t be involved.”
Here is a select list of a dozen agencies and the high-level political appointees either fired or replaced by Trump since he took office Jan. 20, and their oversight of Musk’s various businesses.
National Labor Relations Board
Gwynne Wilcox, chair
Trump fired Wilcox, a Biden appointee, on Jan. 27, from the agency that enforces the rights of private-sector employees to take collective action and unionize. The termination was overturned by U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell, who wrote an “American President is not a king—not even an ‘elected’ one—and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute.” Trump has appealed the ruling.
The NLRB has filed multiple cases against Musk’s companies, including one that accused SpaceX of illegally firing eight employees over an open letter in 2022 that their attorneys said protested “inappropriate, disparaging, sexually charged comments on Twitter” he made on the social media site. Those cases are ongoing, and the agency lists 14 open unfair labor practices cases against Tesla.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Jocelyn Samuels, Charlotte Burrows, commissioners; Karla Gilbride, general counsel
Samuels, Burrows and Gilbride were fired by Trump in late January from the commission that enforces employees’ legal rights. The EEOC sued Tesla in 2023 for allegedly tolerating at its Fremont, Calif., factory widespread racial harassment of Black employees, including subjecting them to slurs and graffiti such as the N-word and the placement of nooses in various locations. The lawsuit is pending.
U.S. Department of Transportation
Erik Soskin, inspector general
Soskin was among 17 inspector generals, who serve as watchdogs over government agencies, who were fired by Trump on Jan. 24. He was appointed by Trump in his first administration.
Earlier in the month, the department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into 2.6 million Teslas over reports of more than a dozen crashes involving the company’s Actually Smart Summon mobile app, which allows drivers to remotely control their vehicles. The NHTSA also has an open probe into Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” technology after reports of four collisions in low-visibility conditions, including one in which a pedestrian was killed.
Federal Aviation Administration
Michael Whitaker, administrator
Whitaker resigned as administrator of the FAA, another Department of Transportation agency, on Jan. 20 despite his term running through 2028. His decision followed a call for his resignation and “radical reform” at the agency by Musk, upset the agency fined SpaceX $633,000 in September for alleged license violations during two Florida launches of its rockets. The agency said the case remains open.
The FAA also is currently considering a SpaceX request to increase the number of launches of its Super Heavy and Starship mega rocket at its Texas launch pad, a proposal that has been opposed by environmentalists citing damage past launches have caused surrounding habitats and wildlife.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Bill Nelson, administrator
Nelson stepped down as NASA administrator on Jan. 20 and his replacement, Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire and private astronaut, is awaiting confirmation by the Senate.
Isaacman has flown on two private missions on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and is reportedly an investor in SpaceX.
Musk has been pushing the agency to retire the International Space Station early so NASA can focus on a Mars mission using SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket. Democratic legislators also have voiced concerns about DOGE’s role in agency cost-cutting, including the planned closing of two offices that provide advice on NASA science and strategies. SpaceX is one of the agency’s largest contractors.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Rohit Chopra, director
Chopra was fired on Feb. 1 as director of the agency charged with protecting consumers from unfair, deceptive or abusive practices by financial companies. His temporary replacement, Russell Vought, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, immediately pulled back oversight and dismissed a number of lawsuits, including one accusing three big banks of allowing unchecked fraud on the Zelle payment app.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced in January that Musk’s social media platform will start a payments app called X Money Account in partnership with Visa. It will allow X users to make peer-to-peer payments that rival Zelle or Venmo. Musk has posted on X, “Delete CFPB,” calling it a duplicative federal agency.
Federal Election Commission
Ellen Weintraub, chair
Weintraub was fired by Trump from her position overseeing the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws and monitors presidential election donations. Weintraub protested that her termination was illegal and Democratic senators demanded Trump rescind it.
Last year, Public Citizen filed a pending complaint with the commission that Musk’s America PAC independent expenditure committee may have violated campaign finance laws by pledging to award $1 million daily to randomly selected registered voters in seven swing states who sign a petition launched by America PAC to “support the constitution.” Musk ultimately donated at least $200 million in support of Trump’s campaign.
Department of Justice
Merrick Garland, attorney general
Garland ended his term as Biden left office and was replaced by former Florida Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, one of Trump’s defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial. Last month, the department dismissed a lawsuit it filed against SpaceX for allegedly discouraging asylees and refugees from applying for jobs or hiring them because of their citizenship status.
This month, Bondi branded attacks on Tesla vehicles, charging stations and a dealership that have followed Musk’s involvement with thousands of federal layoffs as “domestic terrorism.” The department filed charges against three unnamed suspects in the attacks that carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison. Critics have questioned Bondi’s use of “terrorism” given President Trump’s granting of sweeping pardons or commutations to more than 1,500 people charged with or convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Gary Gensler, chair
Gensler ended his term on Jan. 20 and his replacement Paul Atkins is awaiting Senate confirmation. Shortly before Gensler stepped down, the agency filed a complaint accusing Musk of failing to timely disclose in 2022 he had acquired a 5% stake in Twitter.
The agency estimated Musk saved an estimated $150 million from unsuspecting investors unaware of this as he built up his stake in the company he ultimately acquired and renamed X. Musk has derided the suit. The agency, under pressure from DOGE, reportedly offered some employees $50,000 to resign or retire, which critics say will weaken its enforcement efforts.
U.S. Department of Defense
Robert Storch, inspector general
Storch was among the inspector generals fired by Trump. Two Democratic senators in November called on Storch to conduct a review of whether SpaceX should exclude Musk’s involvement in government defense and intelligence contracts following news reports he had multiple conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia has denied the conversations took place, and in 2022, Musk said he’d only spoken to Putin once in a call focused on space, according to the Associated Press.
This month, further controversy arose after the New York Times reported Musk would get a briefing on U.S. plans for any conflict with China, where Tesla has operations. Musk met Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in his office, and Trump said the talk revolved around reducing department costs, according to the Associated Press.
Food and Drug Administration
Robert Califf, commissioner
Califf stepped down on Jan. 20 from his position as chief of the agency that reviews food, drugs and medical devices for their safety. His replacement, Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon who drew headlines bashing the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is awaiting Senate confirmation.
Reuters reported that DOGE cuts eliminated the jobs of employees overseeing Elon Musk’s Neuralink company, which is testing a brain implant allowing paralyzed people to control a computer through their thoughts. The agency, which is being run by an acting commissioner, reportedly sought to hire back at least some of those employees.
Environmental Protection Agency
Sean O’Donnell, inspector general
O’Donnell was among the inspector generals fired by Trump. Musk’s companies have faced accusations of violating environmental laws. Tesla agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle civil allegations brought by 25 California district attorneys that it illegally disposed of hazardous waste at its car service centers, energy centers and its Fremont factory.
On Jan. 15, SpaceX agreed to pay a penalty of $148,378 to the federal EPA after it was accused of discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of water used to cool down its Texas launch pad after engine tests and rocket launches into nearby wetlands. The company neither admitted or denied the allegations.
