Musk won't last long: Billionaire being forced to leave White House
Photo: Elon Musk, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance (Getty Images)
Businessman Elon Musk may lose access to Donald Trump's administration due to a conflict with the civil service law, according to Axios.
A group of Democrats in the US House of Representatives is launching a concerted campaign to force Musk to leave the White House by May 30.
These demands are based on the legal provision that special civil servants (such as Musk's position in connection with his leadership of DOGE) should not serve for more than 130 days.
"We demand an immediate public statement from your administration making clear that Musk will resign and surrender all decision making authority, as required by law, by May 30th," 77 House Democrats wrote in a letter to Trump.
They wrote that Musk would not be allowed to return as a special government employee for a year without giving up his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX.
First salvo
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairman Greg Kasar (D-Texas), who led the letter, told Axios that this is only the first salvo.
“We're making it very clear that the public pressure is only going to ramp up on Republicans between here and May 30,” he said.
Kasar said that Democrats have legal tools, political tools, and all the power of public pressure at their disposal.
However, the Trump administration, according to many Democrats, has already ignored not only federal law but also the Constitution in areas far more important than government ethics rules.
The White House may end up citing a memo from last year's Office of Government Ethics, during the Biden administration, that said unpaid travel days do not count toward the 130 days.
Much of the work of Musk's Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) remains shrouded in secrecy. According to Reuters, a team of technologists at DOGE uses artificial intelligence to monitor messages from government employees for hostility to President Donald Trump.
