On Monday, President Donald Trump clarified exactly how much power tech billionaire Elon Musk has in his appointed but unelected role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
While taking questions from the press corps in the Oval Office, Trump was asked why Musk would need access to payment systems at the Treasury Department that are used to disburse funds. In response, Trump said that Musk “can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval.”
“He’s got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good, if we agree with him, and it’s only if we agree with him,” Trump said.
Trump went on to say that the administration will deny Musk’s requests for access to areas they feel aren’t appropriate for him to be in.
“We’ll give him the approval when appropriate, where not appropriate, we won’t. But he reports in, and it’s something that he feels very strongly about,” the president said. “If there’s conflict, then we won’t let him get near it.”
Trump said he thinks Musk has a talented team around him that has been tasked with shrinking the government, but again said Musk would be blocked from any conflicts with the priorities of the Trump administration.
“Where we think there’s a conflict or if there’s a problem, we won’t let him go near it,” Trump added. “If there was something that didn’t have my OK, I’d let you know about it very fast.”
Questions about Musk’s role in the administration were raised over the weekend when he targeted the US Agency for International Development, suggesting to Trump that it was a “criminal” organization that should “die.”
Musk’s team was forced to call the US Marshals on members of USAID after they denied them access to their devices.
On Monday, Musk said Trump had agreed with him that they should shut down the agency and have it be absorbed into the State Department. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now overseeing what’s left of the agency.