Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, whose companies have contracts with and interest in the federal government while Musk and his team overhaul the size and scope of government, won’t be filing a publicly available financial disclosure report.
Instead, Musk’s required financial disclosure as a designated special government employee will be confidential, a White House official said on the condition of anonymity. Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency task force have been making sweeping changes and forcing cuts at government agencies one by one — to praise from President Trump’s supporters and protest from others.
“As an unpaid special government employee who is not a commissioned officer, Elon will file a confidential financial disclosure report,” the White House official said. “He was also provided an ethics briefing this week and other DOGE staff will/have received the same treatment.”
The highest-level government officials, including Cabinet nominees, top White House officials and so-designated special government employees are required by the Ethics in Government Act to file financial disclosures and oftentimes, ethics agreements, documents meant to shed light on any potential conflicts of interest, or even the appearance of them.
Filers are required to disclose all significant assets, including investments like mutual funds and stocks, as well as income and debt, and foreign investments. The financial disclosure for FBI director nominee Kash Patel, for instance, revealed he was consulting for the Embassy of Qatar as recently as November, the same month Mr. Trump tapped him to head up the FBI.
Alex Brandon / AP
Special government employees — the designation the Trump administration has given Musk as a temporary employee — must file a financial disclosure as long as they work for the federal government for at least 60 days. According to the Office of Government Ethics, which keeps records of these filings and offers guidance to filers, special government employees that are “paid under a system other than the general schedule” and “have a rate of basic pay equal to or greater than 120% of the minimum rate of basic pay for GS-15” are required to file public disclosures, giving the administration a possible but murky loophole, since Musk isn’t accepting a government salary.
Musk’s businesses include SpaceX, Tesla, X, formerly known as Twitter, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and xAI, some of which do business with foreign countries. Tesla, for instance, does business in China. Musk’s net worth is just shy of $400 billion as of this month, according to Forbes.
That Musk’s financial interests won’t be disclosed is a concern, good government nonprofits say, because it’s hard to discern whether any actions he takes or promotes benefit him personally.
“While filing a confidential disclosure may be correct legally, it is not what is appropriate here. With the level of influence over the federal government that Musk appears to have, the American public has a right to know what his business interests and potential conflicts of interest are,” said Jordan Libowitz, vice president of communications for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. “He has spoken in the past of a need for a more transparent government. We agree. This isn’t that.”
In December, Musk took to his platform, X, to say he doesn’t believe Americans should have to file Freedom of Information Act requests because such information should already be public.
“There should be no need for FOIA requests,” Musk wrote. “All government data should be default public for maximum transparency.”
Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, said it’s “concerning that the White House isn’t saying we have nothing to hide and Musk’s financial disclosure report will be released.”
“The public and agencies deserve a full understanding of Musk’s financial interests in order to prevent conflicts when he storms into agencies,” Amey said. “Just because he is unpaid does not mean he won’t have significant influence in this administration, and be involved in decisions that touch on his personal and private interests, including federal contracts and regulatory issues.”
The White House official who confirmed Musk’s financial disclosure will be confidential also said Musk has a “TS” clearance, meaning top secret, the highest level of access to information apart from “TS/SCI,” which means top clearance for sensitive compartmentalized information.
In a press conference Friday, a reporter asked Mr. Trump why DOGE needs access to Americans’ personal information, like bank accounts and Social Security numbers. Consumer advocates and Democratic lawmakers are raising concerns about DOGE gaining access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, and taxpayers’ Social Security numbers.
“Well it doesn’t, but they get it very easily, I mean we don’t have very good security in our country,” the president responded.
A reporter in the Oval Office also asked Mr. Trump if he will put Musk on the podium for the media to ask him questions directly.
“Oh sure, he is not shy,” Mr. Trump responded. “Elon’s not shy.”
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