A top official in Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is reportedly still collecting checks for consulting companies like Apple as her team works to dismantle swaths of the federal government.
Katie Miller, who is also the wife of top Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller, remains a paid “principal” at the Republican consulting firm P2 Public Affairs, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday—furthering conflict of interest concerns within DOGE.
Miller, like Musk, is classified as a “special government employee,” allowing her to legally work for the federal government while keeping her private sector job. Also like Musk, she is not required to disclose her clients or any potential conflicts of interest.
The 33-year-old Florida native—and mom of two—has continued to consult with Fortune 100 companies who are actively bidding for federal contracts, the Journal reported Wednesday. She is said to offer those companies “public relations advice.”
“Since starting at the White House, Miller has also helped P2’s leaders pitch the firm to new clients for lucrative contracts, offering her guidance about Washington in this moment,” the Journal wrote.
Miller’s private gig has raised concerns that companies may seek to buy access to the White House through her. Not only does she hold a prominent spot in DOGE, but her husband is also a top Trump adviser who oversees all domestic policy. She is also close to Musk, having worked as a liaison between the world’s richest man and the Trump campaign last summer as Musk shifted into a full MAGA man.
Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer for George W. Bush, accused the White House of abusing a special government employee “loophole.” The use of special government employees is typically for a part-time role in which expertise in a narrow subject area is needed, he explained to the Journal—not to give sweeping power to private citizens with no transparency into potential conflicts of interest.
“This is just taking this loophole to an extreme,” he said. “Special government employees hide their finances from the public, so people can’t find out about the extent of their potential conflicts of interest.”
Miller has been described as a DOGE spokesperson but has kept a relatively low profile in the group’s first month.
Musk has been the face of DOGE—despite the White House’s claim he is not its real leader—and has promoted the work of his young minion on a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis on his social media platform, X. He has also been interviewed alongside Trump and touted (sometimes with exaggeration) the findings of DOGE.
Katie Miller, by contrast, has remained largely off camera. Her X bio identifies herself only as being Stephen Miller’s wife, but she posts regularly to highlight DOGE’s work and to attack negative press coverage of its mass cuts to the federal workforce.
Miller’s work with P2 includes her giving “public relations advice” to some of the world’s wealthiest companies, sources told the Journal. That includes working for LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed golf league that host tournaments at Trump-owned golf courses, and for the prominent Washington lobbyist Jeff Miller, who was a major fundraiser for Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Those working with Miller in the private sector appear to have enjoyed some access to Trump during his second term. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook recently met with Trump in the Oval Office, the Journal reported, and the LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan “called in for a meeting with Trump and the head of the PGA Tour.”
Miller, like Musk, is not accepting a salary from the government. Her pay for PR work is not public. She did not immediately respond to a text seeking comment from the Daily Beast.
