Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, has said he wants to cut the federal budget by $2 trillion a year and has begun a process of collecting information ahead of drastic cuts in many government departments. If federal departments stop DOGE data collection, it could have a major impact on Trump's plan to impose major cuts on the federal budget.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Elon Musk's conflicts of interest will be monitored and addressed by the Tesla CEO himself. The theory is likely to be tested as Musk's private companies like Tesla and SpaceX have reportedly been paid billions over the past decade for government work.

In an effort to slash government spending, President Trump has asked the world’s richest man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, to lead his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In turn, Musk and his team have spent the first few weeks of Trump’s second term waging a largely unchecked war on the federal bureaucracy — an onslaught that was finally challenged Thursday when a dozen states announced they would sue to block DOGE's access to government payment systems containing Americans' personal data.