Warren listed more than 100 times DOGE boss Elon Musk abused his position

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office issued a report on June 3rd laying out Elon Musk’s “130 days” in President Donald Trump’s administration as the DOGE boss. The report accused the billionaire of using his government position to enrich himself and his businesses. 

The Massachusetts Democrat’s office report disclosed that Musk and individuals acting on his behalf were involved in dozens of questionable actions that raised questions about corruption, ethics, and conflicts of interest. Donald Trump’s presidency was profitable for Musk, with his net worth increasing by over $100B since election day. His companies faced at least $2.37B in potential liability from pending agency enforcement actions before Trump took office. Now, many of those enforcement actions were either stalled or dismissed.

The report also claimed that Musk, while serving as a “Special Government Employee” in the White House and leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), maintained extensive financial conflicts of interest through his ownership or stake in several private and publicly traded companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, X and xAI, the Boring Company, and Neuralink. 

Musk violates ‘norms’ and ‘statutory prohibitions’

Elizabeth Warren calls it textbook corruption for Elon Musk to benefit from Trump's tariff chaos, and that he's made mountains of money from it by leveraging Trump's tariffs to get Starlink licenses approved. Sounds like defamation. pic.twitter.com/QAIZZ5ryBq

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 3, 2025

Federal government agencies under the Trump administration—perhaps influenced by 

In seeking his favor, Musk entered or explored new contracts for his companies and turned to their services. Federal agencies also dropped investigations into Musk companies, declined to enforce regulations against them, or waived penalties that appeared to have been warranted. Guided mainly by DOGE, the Trump administration crippled several agencies overseeing Musk’s companies, gutting their staff, throwing sand in the gears of their operations, and embedding DOGE staff loyal to the Tesla boss.

The report alleged that SpaceX made over $7 billion in DoD contracts. At the same time, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) explored a contract to use Starlink technology in surveillance towers to monitor the border. The FAA also reportedly explored canceling its $2.4 billion contract with Verizon and instead giving it to SpaceX for communications infrastructure.

Regulators also reportedly failed to take public action on their investigations for several months or more in over 40 federal agency matters related to the billionaire investor. The Air Force declined to even review SpaceX for suspension or debarment as a contractor, despite concerns that Musk was repeatedly engaging with top Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin.

“Despite his calls for the government to practice ‘maximum transparency,’ Musk has failed to inform the American people of critical information about his potential conflicts of interest…Musk uses his influence to meddle in the political and judicial processes in ways that could help protect his political and financial interests.”

–Office of Senator Elizabeth Warren 

During his tenure as head of DOGE, Musk received special access to sensitive government meetings, classified information, and proprietary government data that can boost his companies. He also appeared to redirect foreign aid and immigration policy toward his “personal parochial interests” rather than the public’s interest.

Sonnenfeld says Musk has been overly dependent on federal money

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, professor at the Yale School of Management, said not every entrepreneur at Musk’s scale was as dependent on federal money as him – certainly not Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, or Meta. A former high-level Tesla employee familiar with the company’s finances, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution, disclosed that Tesla would not have survived without the $465 million loan from the Energy Department in 2010. 

The anonymous source stressed that it was a critical loan at a critical time. NASA spokeswoman Cheryl Warner also said the agency had invested more than $15 billion in SpaceX for its work on numerous space programs. 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen urged Trump in May to require Musk and special government employees of his DOGE project to certify before leaving government service that they would not use any non-public government data they gained access to for personal benefit. Shaheen, D-N.H., pointed out that the Tesla CEO and DOGE employees had “unprecedented” access to “vast swathes of some of the most sensitive U.S. government data” across various federal agencies.

However, White House spokesman Harrison Fields said that Musk’s business interests would not conflict with his work at DOGE. He added that any contracts connected to Musk’s companies would comply with every government ethics rule pertaining to potential conflicts of interest.

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