Billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk listens during a May 21 press availability in the Oval Office with President Trump and South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa.
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A judge ruled Tuesday that a lawsuit alleging Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency are illegally wielding power over federal government operations can move forward.
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan’s 42-page order in the lawsuit, filed by several Democratic state attorneys general, denies a motion to dismiss the case, but Chutkan did grant a motion to dismiss President Trump as a defendant, finding “the court may not enjoin the President in the performance of his official duties.”
The ruling highlights often-conflicting descriptions of the power that Musk and the DOGE entity have been given to implement Trump’s agenda, and how efforts to downplay that power in court have been undermined by public statements and actions.
Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, found that the plaintiffs provided enough initial evidence to allow their claims that Musk, as a special government employee, has similar power to Senate-confirmed Cabinet officials to continue.
“At this stage, States plausibly allege that Musk makes decisions about ‘federal expenditures, contracts, government property, and the very existence of federal agencies,'” Chutkan wrote.
The states allege Trump violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution when he gave Musk and DOGE sweeping authority to carry out mass firings, terminate grants and contracts, and access sensitive government data without congressional approval.
Requests for comment were submitted to the White House.
In a statement, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said Tuesday’s decision “is an important milestone for preserving America’s system of checks and balances.” Torrez added: “We are proud to move this case forward and help bring Elon Musk’s reign of terror to an end.”
While Musk and lawyers for the government have argued that he is not in charge of DOGE — legally speaking — Musk, Trump and countless other administration officials regularly name the billionaire as the leader of the effort while touting its alleged successes.
In a May 1 interview on Fox News, shared by DOGE’s X account as “Interview with the DOGE team,” Fox’s Jesse Watters said that Musk was “nice enough to invite us” into his “weekly 10 p.m. DOGE meeting.”
Musk has promised to take a step back from his government work to focus on Tesla, SpaceX and his other businesses, claiming on a call with Tesla investors that the DOGE team has “made a lot of progress in addressing waste and fraud,” while revising his savings goals from $2 trillion down to $150 billion by the end of the fiscal year.
That number will likely be difficult to reach, given the targets of DOGE’s cuts. The entity also has a history of inaccurate and overstated savings claims.
Musk criticizes Trump’s bill
Claims about savings are also at the heart of new Musk criticism of congressional legislation that contains the bulk of Trump’s agenda.
In an interview snippet shared by CBS News Tuesday, Musk said he was “disappointed” with the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” that passed the House. The Republican-backed effort would add trillions to the federal debt, budget forecasters say, mostly through the permanent extension of sweeping tax cuts.
“I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit — not just decrease it — and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said. “I think a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both.”
