Elon Musk is facing growing unease over the conflicts of interest created by his continuing ownership stake in a number of companies—and the fact that many of the federal agencies his DOGE lieutenants are cutting happen to have regulatory power over them.
While government appointees must make their outside business interests publicly available, the world’s richest man is serving as a policy advisor, answerable only to Donald Trump.
Musk’s SpaceX has billions in federal contracts, and some of the government agencies that the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency has targeted for job losses or budget cuts have been involved in regulating or investigating his companies.
According to consumer rights non-profit group Public Citizen, the Trump administration has already “halted or moved to dismiss” enforcement investigations against 89 corporations, including Musk’s companies, Tesla, Neuralink, X, XAI, and SpaceX.
The Los Angeles Times identified agencies linked to the oversight of Musk’s businesses that have faced high-level firings since the Trump administration took power in January.
They include the National Labor Relations Board, which has filed various cases against Musk’s companies, including charges of illegally axing eight SpaceX staffers over a letter criticizing the CEO. The NLRB’s chair Gwynne Wilcox, was fired by Trump on January 27. Although the move was overturned in the U.S. District Court, that decision has since been appealed.
The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Erik Soskin, was terminated by Trump on Jan. 24, weeks after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a probe into a mobile app allowing Tesla drivers remote control, which was linked to a number of collisions.
Another fired inspector general, Sean O’Donnell, headed up the Environmental Protection Agency. Tesla was ordered to pay $1.5 million as part of a settlement of a civil environmental prosecution “alleging the electric car company illegally disposed of hazardous waste at its car service centers, energy centers, and its factory in Fremont,” according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office.
The Federal Aviation Authority Administrator, Michael Whitaker, resigned on Jan. 20 after Musk called for “radical reforms” at the agency after SpaceX was fined $633,000 last September for alleged rocket license violations.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has gone after Musk over his purchase of Twitter, filing a complaint against him for a 5% stake he quietly took in the platform before purchasing it outright. SEC chair Gary Gensler ended his role on Jan. 20, and the agency has reportedly offered staff a $50,000 buyout to resign or retire.
DOGE is also said to have cut employees working for the Food and Drug Administration, which is overseeing a brain implant experiment for Musk’s Neuralink company.
“I think the overall goals of Donald Trump and Elon Musk are to slash regulations, to slash budgets and to cut positions all with this claim they are going to increase efficiency and fight fraud,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, told the Los Angeles Times.
