Whereas issues have been already swirling about Elon Musk’s involvement within the Trump administration, the primary potential battle of curiosity has popped up.
Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (which he runs with Vivek Ramaswamy) put out the decision Thursday for “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.” As interesting as that job may sound (oh, it’s seemingly unpaid additionally), the potential battle got here within the directions about learn how to apply.
Potential candidates are being instructed to ship their resumes to the DOGE account on X through direct message. Below Musk’s adjustments to that platform, nonetheless, solely premium subscribers are in a position to ship DMs to the DOGE account. These run from $8 to $16 per thirty days.
Put one other manner: To even be thought of for a job within the division (and the positioning stated solely the highest 1% of resumes might be reviewed by Musk and Ramaswamy), candidates should make a monetary contribution to certainly one of Musk’s companies.
That’s simply the potential tip of the iceberg, in fact. For instance, Musk additionally runs SpaceX, which has contracts with the federal authorities.
Whereas Musk has stated “all actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency,” it’s unclear if the 2 leaders of it should file monetary disclosures. And the potential for one or each taking out authorities laws that influence their companies has ethicists involved.
“If Musk and Ramaswamy are in a position where they can influence governmental decisions and if some of those decisions could impact their businesses, then there could be a danger of illegal conflicts of interest,” Noah Bookbinder, the president of Residents for Accountable Ethics instructed ABC Information. “Other laws and rules could also be at issue today depending on what they do and how this ‘Department’ works.”
Representatives for X and the Trump transition group didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
