Name: Elon Musk
Title: Chief Executive Office, Tesla
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, xAI
Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, X Corp.
Revolver/Government Experience
- Musk joined the Trump administration as a “Special Government Employee” to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
- DOGE was ostensibly supposed to improve bureaucratic efficiency, accountability, and transparency in government spending. Instead, Musk used DOGE to “dismantle the essential functions of the federal government,” without regard for legal, political, or professional precedent.
- DOGE staff were recruited largely from people already in Musk’s orbit. DOGE agents infiltrated federal agencies to purge the federal workforce and cut aid programs, while undermining data security along the way.
- Musk left DOGE in May 2025, ultimately admitting that the initiative was only “somewhat successful.” DOGE’s claims of generating over $200 billion in federal savings have been contradicted by multiple reports.
Trump Admin Ties
- Musk became Trump’s top donor during the 2024 presidential campaign, shelling out at least $250 million in financial support. Musk also helped create the pro-Trump America PAC and manipulated X’s algorithm to advantage Trump.
- As the Trump administration expands its use of AI in federal agencies, Musk has pushed his own AI company, xAI, to be used in federal agencies. The General Services Administration agreed to buy xAI’s chatbot Grok for use across the federal government. xAI received a Pentagon contract worth up to $200 million to develop agentic AI workflows. The Defense Department also integrated Grok into it’s bespoke AI platform.
- Skeptics of Musk’s DOGE initiative read his push for efficiency as a vehicle to replace federal workers with AI. Musk championed the idea of consolidating all government data silos into a centralized repository for the sake of efficiency, and to root out waste and fraud, but it also presented itself as an opportunity for AI models exhaustively trained on publicly available information to gain access to sensitive private information locked in secure government databases.
- While leading DOGE, Musk encouraged his team to use AI to carry out their missions. A DOGE staffer used AI to rewrite Department of Urban Housing and Development (HUD) regulations. Another deployed an error-prone AI tool to “munch” Department of Veteran Affairs contracts. DOGE affiliates at the Office of Personnel Management used Meta’s Llama AI model to surveil federal worker’s email for “disloyalty”, and used AI hosted on Microsoft’s Azure to analyze Education Department programs and spending.
- Musk proposed replacing contractors at the Education Department with AI chatbots. Student borrowers faced long wait times and confusion during the rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) under the Biden Administration, prompting proposals to revamp the communications system, but technology experts warned replacing human contractors with generative AI is likely to raise additional concerns about privacy and data accuracy.
- Despite his departure from federal government, Musk still holds influence over AI policy at the White House. Musk was allegedly among the group of tech leaders that convinced Trump to rescind an AI executive order that would have placed modest regulations on frontier AI models, and replace it with a watered-down version.
Government Affairs
- Tesla spent $1.57 million lobbying the federal government in 2025, and has spent $760,000 in the first quarter of 2026. Tesla has lobbied Congress, the White House, and federal agencies on AI issues related to their autonomous vehicle technology.
- X Inc. spent $720,000 lobbying the federal government in 2025, and has spent $190,000 in the first quarter of 2026. X Inc. has lobbied Congress, the White House and federal agencies on AI issues related to consumer product safety, digital trade, and data center infrastructure.
State Level Action
- Musk’s xAI is the subject of three state level lawsuits, and the Department of Justice has sided with xAI in both. In Colorado, xAI is suing to kill a bill that would protect “people from discrimination in high-risk AI systems making consequential decisions” in employment, housing, and healthcare. The DOJ asked a federal court to dismiss a NAACP lawsuit against xAI plants in Tennessee and Mississippi for operating without required permits and excessive air pollutants, violations of the Clean Air Act.
- X Corp, the subsidiary of xAI, has two registered lobbyists in Tennessee.
- X Corp has one lobbyist in Mississippi in 2026.
- Musk donated $500,000 to the Texas Senate Leadership fund to support Republican candidates at a time when the AI data center boom has become one of the Texas legislature’s top priorities.
President Donald Trump participates in a press conference with departing DOGE adviser Elon Musk, Friday, May 30, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)