Elon Musk’s Conflicts of Interest, Explained

By The RepresentUs Team February 25, 2025

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has led a sweeping effort to reshape the federal government. After spending more than a quarter of a billion dollars in the final months of the 2024 race to boost Trump’s candidacy, Trump appointed him to head up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to review staffing and spending in every government department under the Executive Branch.

With so much government power at Musk’s disposal and with so many of his businesses interfacing directly with the government agencies he has been charged with overhauling, it’s worth looking deeper at his potential conflicts of interest.

Musk’s conflicts with regulatory agencies

Many of the agencies Musk is scrutinizing through DOGE have taken regulatory or investigative action against some of his companies.

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High-profile examples of conflicts:

• The Federal Aviation Administration had recently proposed fines against SpaceX for safety violations

• The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit for $150 million against Musk for allegedly misleading shareholders and failing to properly disclose his purchases of Twitter stock in 2022

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had sued Tesla for an alleged pattern of racial abuse

• The National Labor Relations Board has 24 investigations into Musk’s companies for mistreatment and illegal firing of some workers among other labor violations

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) not only tracks consumer complaints about products (like Tesla cars), but it would also regulate X’s new move into mobile payments

Already we are seeing administrative moves that may benefit Musk and take pressure off him and his companies:

• FDA staff reviewing products from Musk’s Neuralink company were recently fired as part of staff cuts made by DOGE

• Five of the recently fired inspectors general were embedded in agencies like the USDA and Department of Labor that were investigating some of Musk’s companies

• Trump recently fired the head of the Office of Government Ethics which had a pending request to investigate Musk’s role as a government official and his conflicts of interest.

Musk’s conflicts with government contracts

Musk’s entanglements with the federal government go beyond agencies investigating and suing him. He has a mandate through DOGE to reduce government spending, but many of his companies have been the beneficiaries of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.

His seven companies…

• X (formerly Twitter)
• xAI
• Neuralink
• Starlink
• Boring Company
• Tesla
• SpaceX

…have benefited from a combined $20 billion in government contracts and subsidies over the last 16 years.

The U.S. government, particularly in the defense, intelligence, and space sectors, has become highly reliant on SpaceX. From scientific research to satellite launches, much of the nation's space operations now depend on the company, which secured $3.8 billion in federal contracts in 2024 alone. One of the most significant deals came from the National Reconnaissance Office, which awarded SpaceX a classified $1.8 billion contract to develop a network of spy satellites.

The Big Question: Musk is in his position to slash federal spending, but will he cut spending that benefits him and his companies?

There are no guardrails on Elon Musk

Technically, Elon Musk is a “special government employee” that is serving as a senior adviser to the president. That means, by law, he is required to recuse himself from any government work that could have an impact on his financial interests, but he has yet to do so saying that it’ll be “totally obvious” when he’s doing something that benefits his companies.

In his position, he will also be required to file a financial disclosure statement, but the White House has already said that that report will not be made public, allowing the world’s richest man to avoid further public scrutiny of his government work and how it might conflict with his businesses.

If you care about accountable government, now’s the time to get involved. 

When asked about Musk’s conflicts of interest President Donald Trump simply said Musk “won’t be involved” in decisions where his businesses might conflict with his government work.

That’s not good enough for us.

That’s why we’ve launched a national campaign to put pressure on Congress to do their jobs and provide oversight and accountability on Elon Musk. Congress has the power to investigate Musk's takeover of our government. If they don't act, he will continue to make decisions behind closed doors with zero oversight that will affect you and your family and potentially benefit him personally.