Elon Musk delivered a masterclass in transparency and accountability Tuesday night in the Oval Office when a reporter pressed him on potential conflicts of interest in his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Unfazed by the pointed questioning, Musk made it clear that DOGE operates with an unprecedented level of transparency, ensuring that its work remains fully visible to the public.
The reporter referenced a White House statement indicating that Musk would identify any conflicts of interest himself, asking, “Does that mean that you are, in effect, policing yourself? What are the checks and balances that are in place to ensure that there is accountability and transparency?”
Musk wasted no time dismantling the premise of the question. “Well, we actually are trying to be as transparent as possible. In fact, our actions, we post our actions to the DOGE handle on X and to the DOGE website. So, all of our actions are maximally transparent,” he stated. “I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.”
He went on to explain that DOGE’s work is rooted in clear, logical decision-making rather than subjective judgments. “The kind of things we’re doing are very, very simple and basic. These are not individual judgment decisions. These are about simply having sensible checks and balances in the system itself to ensure that taxpayer money is spent well. So it’s got nothing to do with, like, say, a contract for some company of mine at all.”
When the reporter pressed further about the billions of dollars in federal contracts awarded to Musk’s companies, the entrepreneur reiterated that DOGE’s actions are fully public.
“So if you see anything, you say, like, ‘Wait a second, hey Elon, that doesn’t, that seems like maybe there’s a conflict there.’ It’s not like people are going to be shy about saying that,” he quipped. “They’ll say it immediately.”
Musk emphasized that true trust is built through visibility, not blind assurances. “Transparency is what builds trust, not simply somebody asserting trust. So not somebody saying they’re trustworthy, but transparency, so you can see everything that’s going on, and you can see, am I doing something that benefits one of my companies or not? It’s totally obvious.”