The fight between Musk acolytes and the White House for control of DOGE

Elon Musk’s allies are fighting for influence at DOGE as the White House moves to neuter the office.

During his time at DOGE, Elon Musk and his allies helped SpaceX, Tesla and X employees get jobs across the government. Picture: AP

Elon Musk has left the government, but his clout at DOGE lives on. Weeks after the billionaire left his role at the Department of Government Efficiency amid his feud with President Trump, a small band of Musk loyalists is fighting to preserve the legacy — and power — of the government-slashing office.

Current and former officials close to DOGE say that in closed meetings, staffers have been quizzed on questions of their loyalty: Trump or Musk?

The fight has pitted DOGE officials against some in the White House who are seeking to diminish DOGE’s role, and has triggered infighting and paranoia within the group’s diminished ranks, according to people familiar with the matter.

Musk’s influence continues to be felt at DOGE largely through Steve Davis, who was his top lieutenant at DOGE before leaving the government in May, according to some of those people. Despite no longer being a government employee, Davis continues to give directions to DOGE officials regularly and has privately told some of them that his departure was “fake news,” say people familiar with the conversations.

An official close to Davis and Musk said Davis isn’t giving directions and conversations with current DOGE officials are informal.

Some current and former DOGE officials say allies of Musk want to finish the work they started and usher in a DOGE 2.0 focused more on revamping government websites and IT systems than cutting government workers. But others, including some inside the White House, say they believe Musk and Davis are keeping tentacles in government to help their businesses.

Parents and children attend the weekly ‘Camp Democracy’ for the children of fired federal employees. The sweeping initiative led by the Trump administration and Elon Musk has already purged tens of thousands of federal workers. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

During his time at DOGE, Musk and his allies helped SpaceX, Tesla and X employees get jobs across the government. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said the agency has been testing Starlink connections in several states.

DOGE featured prominently in the early days of Trump’s second term, but became a political headache for the White House after it failed to achieve the savings promised by Musk. DOGE says it has saved $190 billion through a combination of asset sales, contract cancellations, job cuts and other moves. Budget experts across the political spectrum question that claim.

The tug of war over DOGE carries risks for Musk, who has a large book of government contracts and is managing the plummeting fortunes of Tesla, his EV company. Trump told reporters last week that “We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.” Trump made the comments in response to Musk’s recent criticism of Trump’s sprawling tax-and-spending bill — which lawmakers passed and the president signed — and its contributions to the federal debt. On Saturday, Musk said that he created a new political party called the America Party to challenge Republicans and Democrats.

Musk and Davis didn’t respond to requests for comment. White House spokesman Harrison Fields said that “Many Presidents have promised, but none other than President Trump has delivered to actually make government more efficient and root out waste, fraud, and abuse in Washington, and that mission is moving full steam ahead.” DOGE no longer appears central to that mission. Trump has told aides he is over DOGE’s aggressive and at-times reckless tactics, according to people familiar with his comments.

Some officials have expressed concern about their ability to trust DOGE workers who remain loyal to Musk. The White House has given agency heads more control over DOGE staffers who have moved out of their home base at the General Services Administration and into federal agencies, those people said.

Last month, the head of Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, sought to lessen DOGE’s influence internally and approached the White House for guidance. The response: Agency heads can decide whom to keep or cut. Bisignano parted ways with one DOGE staffer from SSA, who in June moved to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, people familiar with the matter said.

Current and former officials close to DOGE say that in closed meetings, staffers have been quizzed on questions of their loyalty: Trump or Musk? Picture: AFP

Officials in the Trump administration have also begun scrutinising DOGE’s work more closely, including contract cuts ordered by DOGE officials and, in some cases, stepping in to reverse them, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

When Musk first attacked Trump on X a month ago, leading to the real-time implosion of their relationship, some DOGE staffers immediately wondered if they were about to be fired.

“This is obviously beyond crazy,” Davis texted an associate on June 5, about a week after he left the government. “But mission and actions remain the same until we are forced out.” Davis, who has served as Musk’s right-hand man at companies including X, SpaceX, and the Boring Company, has continued to speak with DOGE staffers since leaving the government. He often communicates with them over Signal, and sometimes calls certain staffers multiple times a week, according to people close to DOGE.

“Steve is out of government, but he’s not out of DOGE,” Anthony Armstrong, a former Morgan Stanley banker and top DOGE official, told staff in early June, according to meeting notes reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Musk has also talked to DOGE staffers since his break-up with Trump. At a June 10 meeting, Musk, Davis and Katie Miller, a top Musk adviser and the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, told key DOGE employees that Musk continues to back their work, encouraging them to stay the course.

The efforts by Musk’s allies to keep a foothold at DOGE have been complicated not only by White House officials but by employees within DOGE itself.

Some senior DOGE officials have expressed concerns about Davis — an outside businessman connected to the world’s richest man — continuing to potentially have access to sensitive government information through his DOGE contacts. Some of them have conveyed their concerns to White House officials.

Davis subsequently pushed for their firing, calling their back-channelling an attempted coup, according to current and former employees close to DOGE.

Sam Corcos, a DOGE staffer working in a senior role at the Treasury Department, told people he didn’t accept that Davis had any ongoing authority over DOGE after leaving the government. Subsequently, Davis urged the firing of Corcos and other staffers, and told DOGE staffers not to talk to Corcos, people familiar with the events said.

Corcos, who remains in his role, is implementing the “IRS modernisation plan that taxpayers have deserved for over three decades,” a Treasury spokeswoman said.

Other people close to Musk are carrying on DOGE’s work, most notably Airbnb co-founder and Tesla board member Joe Gebbia, who is now a senior official at the Office of Personnel Management.

In late June, allies of both Davis and Musk made a pitch to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on DOGE’s future, essentially auditioning for continued roles at the group.

Their message: DOGE is moving on from its destructive phase to “growth mode,” focusing on rebuilding what they describe as customer-facing parts of the government.

Using “Mad Men”-style boards for a presentation, Gebbia pitched a plan for a refurbished National Parks website, among other things. “Susie listened,” a White House official said. “There were no major decisions made.”

Wall Street Journal