New Report: Elon Musk Has Conflict of Interest at Over 70% of DOGE’s Targets

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report from Public Citizen finds that, as Elon Musk reportedly prepares to step back from his governmental role, he has had a direct business interest in over 70 percent of the agencies and departments targeted by DOGE since its inception. The report maps out the entities DOGE has targeted and identifies which ones carry a known conflict of interest for Elon Musk’s business entanglements.

“It should alarm every American that the wealthiest man in the world has spent the last several months dismantling the same departments and agencies tasked with regulating his businesses,” said Elizabeth Beavers, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch. “Musk’s role as the most powerful person in government makes it highly unlikely that any regulator will crack down on his corporations and surely will make agency leaders look more favorably at Musk companies as potential government contractors.”

Top findings from the report include:

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: A partnership between Musk’s X and Visa is already in the works to establish payment processing services within the app. If X became a payment processor, it would be regulated by the CFPB, calling into question why exactly DOGE attempted to shut down a bureau protecting Americans from financial fraud.
• Department of Defense: SpaceX is a major defense contractor, with about $22 billion in government contracts across different agencies, including DOD. Notably, DOD was not an agency targeted by DOGE for extensive cuts (despite the fact that it has never passed an audit) — nearly all potential cuts identified were in diversity, equity and inclusion programming.
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: An email laying off agency employees — which multiple employees described as initiated by DOGE — resulted in a 4 percent staff reduction in a single day and a 10 percent decline in staffing since Trump took office. NHTSA is the agency that oversees autonomous cars like the ones sold by Musk’s Tesla.
• Food and Drug Administration: DOGE initiatives reportedly resulted in the firing of around 1,000 FDA employees early in 2025 before RFK Jr. took over HHS and initiated even more firings. The FDA has direct regulatory authority over Musk’s Neuralink company’s brain implant technologies, and Musk must get the FDA’s approval for Neuralink to take certain steps that are necessary to develop the brain implant device for medical use.

Although White House has stated that Elon Musk would “self-police” his conflicts of interest by recusing himself when his DOGE and business interests collide, the report’s findings make clear that this approach is deeply and incurably flawed – and that urgent action by Congress is required to safeguard the government from Musk’s self-dealing and grift.