Elon's Spiraling Conflicts Of Interest
12 Agencies Investigating Musk's Companies Found Themselves on the Chopping Block
When people talk about Elon Musk's conflicts of interest at DOGE, they tend to focus on the generous government contracts his SpaceX and Tesla receive.
Sure, being charged with overseeing the agencies that dole out government contracts when your own companies are competing for those very contracts is a pretty transparent conflict of interest. But the funding Elon gets from the U.S. government isn't even the half of it.
The bigger conflict comes from being charged with overseeing the myriad of government agencies charged with holding you accountable for breaking the rules and regulations the government put in place to protect the rest of society from people like you violate.
And BOY, has Elon managed to repeatedly find himself on the wrong side of an AWFUL LOT of federal accountability departments.
Twelve of them, to be precise.
1. Department of Labor (DOL)
The DOL oversees the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Those 3 sub-agencies had more than a dozen open investigation into Tesla and SpaceX over alleged unfair labor practices, safety violations, and discriminatory work practices. NLRB filed a complaint against SpaceX after 8 employees said they were fired in retaliation for speaking critically of Musk; SpaceX sued the NLRB in response. OFCCP was conducting an audit of potential workplace discrimination at Tesla. EEOC sued Tesla for alleged racial harassment and retaliation in 2023.
The DOGE Response:
The DOL Inspector General was illegally fired by Trump during his midnight purge of Inspectors General on Jan 24.
Trump fired the chair of the NLRB and has effectively shut down NLRB’s ability to rule on cases.
Trump gutted OFCCP via an executive order on Jan 21 before their investigation’s findings could be made public.
Trump fired 2 of the 3 Democratic Commissioners on the EEOC
2. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
Consumers have submitted more than 300 complaints about Tesla to the CFPB, including 66 in the the last year.
The DOGE Response:
Trump fired CFPB Director Rohit Chopra and installed Project 2025 architect Russ Vought as the bureau’s acting director.
CFPB’s Washington headquarters has been closed, and staff and contractors have been told that they cannot “perform any work tasks.”
Musk tweeted “Delete CFPB” less than a week after the agency finalized a rule that could put his planned collaboration with Visa to offer a real-time payments system on the platform into the agency’s crosshairs.
3. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
The USAID Inspector General had begun an investigation into contracts between Elon and the Ukraine government over Starlink satellite terminals Elon provided shortly after the war broke out.
The DOGE Response:
USAID has been completely shuttered after DOGE took a wrecking ball to the agency.
The USAID Inspector General was fired days after publishing a report critical of the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the agency.
4. Department of Transportation (DOT)
DOT, which oversees the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), had several open investigations into Tesla. FAA had recently ordered SpaceX to carry out a formal investigation into the loss of a Starship vehicle during a test flight, and previously ordered over $630,000 in civil penalties against SpaceX for numerous safety violations.
The DOGE Response:
The DOT Inspector General was fired by Trump.
The FAA Administrator resigned effective Jan. 20, following pressure from Musk.
5. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
The USDA Inspector General launched a probe into Elon's Neuralink in 2022 for potential violations of the Animal Welfare Act. As of January, the investigation was ongoing.
The DOGE Response:
The USDA Inspector General, a 22-year veteran of the agency, was fired by Trump.
6. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
EPA regulators have settled multiple lawsuits with Tesla over violations of the Clean Air Act and hazardous waste laws at the company’s manufacturing plant in Fremont, California.
The DOGE Response:
The EPA Inspector General was fired by Trump.
7. Federal Election Commission (FEC)
The FEC is set to rule on a number of complaints filed during the
2024 election cycle, including complaints pertaining to Elon’s America PAC and his [legally dubious] million-dollar-giveaway drawings people could enter by registering to vote.
The DOGE Response:
The Trump Administration illegally removed FEC chairwoman Ellen Weintraub from her post.
8. Department of the Interior (DOI)
DOI oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which monitors the federal lands near SpaceX’s launch site in Texas for any damage to threatened species’ habitats. Elon has repeatedly clashed with FWS, calling their review process “unacceptable.”
The DOGE Response:
The DOI Inspector General was fired by Trump.
9. Department of Defense (DOD)
Concerns that SpaceX has repeatedly failed to comply with federal reporting protocols aimed at protecting state secrets— including by not providing some details of Elon’s meetings with foreign leaders—triggered several federal reviews by DOD’s Office of Inspector General, the Air Force, and the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security.
The Air Force also recently denied Musk high-level security access, citing potential security risks associated with the billionaire.
THE DOGE RESPONSE:
The DOD Inspector General was fired by Donald Trump.
10. Department of Justice (DOJ)
DOJ filed a lawsuit in 2023 against SpaceX for allegedly discriminating against asylees and refugees in hiring. DOJ also opened investigations into whether Tesla has been candid
in describing the features of its vehicles.
The DOGE Response:
The Trump Administration has taken several actions to gut the DOJ, including firing top leadership and prosecutors.
11. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The SEC sued X in January 2025, alleging Musk misled shareholders about his Twitter stock purchases in 2022 and ordering Musk to pay the federal government as much as $150 million. Musk called the agency a “totally broken organization” in response to the lawsuit.
The DOGE Response:
Trump vowed to fire the SEC Chair Gary Gensler “on day one.” Gensler stepped down before Trump could fire him, leaving a Republican majority at the SEC.
12. Office of Government Ethics (OGE)
Members of Congress requested that OGE investigate Elon’s conflicts of interest—given his status as a Special Government Employee with DOGE, and his extensive business holdings that receive billions of dollars in federal government contracts and subsidies.
The DOGE Response:
The Director of OGE was fired by Trump.
Elon Musk has repeatedly demonstrated that he doesn't believe the rules of business that apply to everyone else apply to him as well. Call it the narcissistic, pathological megalomania that comes with being the World's Richest Human.
And just like his new BFF Trump, Elon's working definition of "very unfair practices" is "any legitimate attempt to hold him accountable for breaking the rules everyone else has to follow."
He's flouted everything from safety standards, hiring practices, and animal treatment to election laws, environmental protections, and national security.
He played stupid games and won stupid prizes.
He f***** around and found out.
Then he shelled out $280 million to buy himself a presidency, got his orange puppet to invent a fake department giving himself total autonomy and control over the very agencies responsible for holding him accountable, and then made sure everyone in charge of those agencies got fired and/or had their department shut down.
THAT is the conflict of interest everyone needs to start talking about.