‘Unelected and unchecked’: Why is Elon Musk holding court in the oval office?

By Michaela Walters (with Emily Maitlis & Jon Sopel)

Elon Musk's new role as head of Doge in Donald Trump's administration has seen him granted sweeping power in the federal government, despite having no political experience or democratic mandate. So who is holding him to account?

Read time: 4 minutes

In brief:

• During an Oval Office press conference, Elon Musk held court while Donald Trump sat silently beside him, defending Doge's actions and claiming maximum transparency - whilst also admitting that he got the ‘$100m worth of condoms to Gaza’ claim wrong.
• The Trump administration has directed the Justice Department to stop enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, effectively allowing American businesses to engage in foreign bribery, while also dropping corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams.
• The News Agents say it was “nuts” watching Musk dominate the Oval Office press conference.

What’s the story?

He isn’t the vice-president, holds no democratically elected position and had never previously worked a day in the world of politics, but you’d never know it from Elon Musk’s behavior since Donald Trump took office last month.

The tech entrepreneur appeared by the president’s side in the Oval Office on Tuesday (11 February) for a press conference in which he answered reporters' questions on what Doge – the newly created ‘department of government efficiency’, which he heads – has been up to in the first three weeks of the new administration.

Appointed directly by the president himself, Musk has had full reign to make financial cutbacks on government spending, and has used this power to take over foreign aid agency USAID’s headquarters, locking out staff and freezing billions in aid the independent agency delivered to vulnerable countries.

He is essentially mounting a “hostile takeover,” Emily Maitlis says, on thousands of jobs, on federal agencies and on aid spending.

“He's now lecturing the press on why it's important to get rid of the bureaucrats, because America needs to reassert its democracy,” Emily Maitlis explains.

This has all been done in somewhat secretive conditions, with Doge’s 40 staffers trying to keep their names private - although many have leaked.

But as he stood next to the resolute desk, wearing a MAGA hat and with his toddler son, called X, on his shoulders, Musk insisted to reporters that Doge is the most “transparent” organisation to have ever existed.

“We post our actions to the DOGE handle on X and to the DOGE website, so all of our actions are maximally transparent. I don’t know of a case where an organisation’s been more transparent than the DOGE organisation,” he said.

Musk has operated with unprecedented power since he was handed the role, reshaping the federal government, controlling huge sums of money and seemingly answering to no one - despite neitherthe American public nor the senate voting for him to hold the position.

Emily asks: “The serious question at the heart of all this is: Are they trying to upend what democratic accountability looks like if you are the president?”

What else has Trump introduced?

As well as instructing Doge to cut government spending, Trump has now directed the Justice Department to cease enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that prevents American officials and American businesses from bribing foreign officials, something he called a “horrible law”.

“It's all being done under the badge of ‘well, hang on, The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was making America uncompetitive, and we need to be competitive with all the other countries that don't pay a blind bit of attention to this idea.

“It’s turning the clock back on years of trying to root out corruption in public life.” Jon says.

This happened on the same day that the US justice department told federal prosecutors to drop their corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams had pleaded not guilty after being accused of accepting illegal campaign funds and gifts in exchange for his influence as mayor.

“The prosecutors thought they had an absolute slam dunk of a case against him. The evidence was stacked up. That case has been stopped,” Emily explains.

It’s like a new “inverted word,” she goes on, whereby if you’re looking into corruption you’ll likely get fired, but if you’re committing bribery or corrupt practices, you’ll get pardoned and called a “hero”.

“The one thing Trump's not being is hypocritical,” Emily says.

“He's a transactional narcissist who's worked out that bribery and corruption has probably served very well for the Trump empire in the past. That's how you get things done.”

Trump directs Justice Department to cease enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

What’s The News Agents’ take?

Jon Sopel says he was “utterly transfixed” watching Elon Musk hold court, while Donald Trump sat beside him silently, and he couldn’t help thinking “this is all nuts.”

“There is no line of accountability, apart from Elon Musk is doing it at Donald Trump's behest.”

Jon adds, what we’re seeing play out is the idea of “unitary executive authority,” which is the idea that the President of the United States, is the only person that matters in the Constitution, and other checks and balances, such as Congress or the courts have no role to play.

“You just say, in its finest, purest form, I was elected by the American people. I won the popular vote. I won the Electoral College. I can now do what I want, and my friends, importantly, can also do what I want,” Emily explains.

One person that did try to hold the Trump/Musk duo to account was a reporter, who during the press conference, pointed out to him pushed Musk about the ‘$100 million worth of condoms being sent to Gaza’ claim he made last week - that US taxpayers money was paying for billions of condoms to be sent to Hamas - something Doge, of course, quickly scrapped.

The condoms, the reporter said, were sent toGaza in Mozambique for HIV prevention - not to the Gaza Strip.

“How can we make sure that all the statements that you said were correct so we can trust what you say?” she asks Musk.

To which he says; “We will make mistakes, but we'll act quickly to correct any mistakes.”

But, Emily points out, he’s not acting quickly to correct mistakes. He didn’t come forward with this one, he waited until a reporter pointed it out to him.

“He's having to accept that they make huge mistakes along the way, because they're not checking any of these facts.”

Although Jon questions whether they are making mistakes or being “disingenuous”

“Are they just making stuff up because it's good propaganda?”

Whatever their reason, Jon says the most interesting thing in all of this is the “very limited opposition to Donald Trump”, with the Democratic Party doing little to hold him to account.

“The courts are now the bulwark against this kind of accretion of power by Donald Trump and Elon Musk to do whatever they like.

“And I guess the big question is, you know, what happens if the courts rule and Donald Trump says, I'm going to ignore what you've said?”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.

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