Topline
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE as he’s coined it, was sued just moments after President Donald Trump was sworn into office Monday, with a public interest law group alleging DOGE is violating a law from the 1970s on executive branch committees—the first known legal challenge to Trump’s administration.
Key Facts
The lawsuit from the National Security Counselors was shared with Forbes ahead of it being filed, and alleges DOGE qualifies as a federal advisory committee, meaning it must have “fairly balanced” membership, keep minutes, have public meetings, file a charter and more—none of which the panel seems to have done, according to the suit.
The case is based around the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which was put in place in 1972 and is supposed to be followed when an agency seeks consensus advice from a group that includes at least one person who isn’t a regular federal employee and gets input for its own operations or activities.
The suit also states advisory committees “have a nondiscretionary duty to ‘not be inappropriately influenced by the appointing authority or by any special interest,’” and the plaintiffs argue Trump and others have “inappropriately influenced” the committee.
The co-plaintiffs are Jerald Lentini, an attorney for National Security Counselors and elected official in Manchester, Connecticut, and Joshua Erlich, an employment lawyer, and the defendants include Musk and Trump.
The lawsuit wants Musk and other leaders of DOGE to be barred from doing official business until the panel complies with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and says the White House should not be able to implement its recommendations.
Forbes has reached out to Musk for comment.
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Crucial Quote
“Nobody disputes that there is a huge amount of wasteful spending in the federal government,” Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, told Forbes in a statement. “Our only concern is that DOGE, as it is currently constituted, lacks the expertise to understand how its recommendations will backfire if it pushes federal workers out without understanding why they are there in the first place.”
Key Background
Trump confirmed the Department of Government Efficiency shortly after he was elected in November, saying it would be led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who would “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., will also chair a House subcommittee on DOGE. Trump said in a statement DOGE would “partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget,” but suggested the department would be more of a consulting organization that remains outside of government rather than a federal agency or department. Musk first pitched the idea of DOGE in September before Trump was elected, and shortly after Trump said he would create the commission and it would be led by Musk, who spent over $200 million to help get Trump elected has become outspoken against the size of government in recent months. Ramaswamy and Musk outlined their vision for DOGE in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal in which they talked about addressing “federal overspending” and reducing “the sheer magnitude of waste, fraud and abuse that nearly all taxpayers wish to end”—though their actual role remains unclear. Musk first endorsed Trump after he survived the first assassination attempt on his life in July, saying he “fully endorse(d)” Trump and hoped for his rapid recovery. Musk then became a campaign staple with Trump and has been at Mar-A-Lago and in Washington, D.C., for much of the transition period acting as a kind of adviser to the president-elect.
Tangent
Reports have circulated in recent days that Ramaswamy, Musk’s co-lead of DOGE, is planning to depart the agency as he focuses on a bid for Ohio governor. Ramaswamy is planning to announce his gubernatorial campaign as soon as the end of this month, CBS News reported, and that the departure comes as he has “worn out his welcome” with Trump. The New York Times reported Friday Ramaswamy will not immediately leave his DOGE position, though.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Musk to have a net worth of $433.9 billion as of Monday morning, making him the wealthiest person on Earth. We estimated Ramaswamy had a net worth of just over $1 billion in November, though a downturn in the market later that month brought him back to around $950 million.
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