Elon Musk is not formally authorised to make decisions affecting the government as per a clarification issued by the White House. He is simply an employee of the White House and an advisor to the president of the US; that he is only expected to convey the directives of the president.
It was stated by Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration, White House, that Elon Musk is not the US DOGE service administrator.
The clarification was much needed considering the widespread concerns regarding the thoughtless terminations of hundreds of federal government employees. This resulted in scores of lawsuits being filed against Musk. One judge even openly questioned whether Musk was authorised to intervene in government matters.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been on a mission to cut government spending. As part of this, Musk was entrusted with the responsibility to find out areas of wasteful expenditure and eliminate the same. However, this led to thousands of government employees being rendered jobless as the US president was already in the process of trimming the federal workforce having signed an executive order to this effect. These firings have created an atmosphere of insecurity and uncertainty.
To add to this tense atmosphere, some media reports now say that DOGE is trying to obtain sensitive data and records pertaining to taxpayers from the database of the Internal Revenue Service or IRS.
