News writer The White House has granted Elon Musk the title of «special US civil servant», reports CNN. This status gives the billionaire top secret access to state secrets, but he will not receive a salary and will continue to run his business. Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and X (formerly Twitter), and also runs Tesla and by the newly minted artificial intelligence company xAI. According to the Ministry of Justice, a special civil servant is «anyone who works or is supposed to work for the government for 130 days or less than 365 days». It should be reminded that Elon, who is currently the richest man in the world, has become an ardent supporter of Donald Trump this year and invested a lot of money in his election campaign. After the newly minted president took office, Musk demonstrated that has broad powers to implement its government efficiency initiative known as DOGE. On Monday, Trump confirmed that Musk has access to the Treasury Department’s critical payment system; the same day, federal unions sued the Treasury Department. «Elon cannot and will not do anything without our approval. And we will give him approval if necessary. Where it is inappropriate — we will not give it», — the US president said. As a special government employee, Musk is subject to the federal conflict of interest law, which prohibits government employees from participating in matters that could affect their financial interests. CNN writes that the billionaire’s business success was partially facilitated by federal funds, and SpaceX has received billions of dollars in direct government contracts. «We rely on the Department of Justice to enforce financial conflict of interest standards for Elon Musk and everyone else, but there is reason to doubt that the Justice Department will enforce any laws, including criminal laws, against a Trump ally,» says Kathleen Clark, a law professor at the University of Washington who specializes in public ethics. It should be noted that Musk’s connection with Trump can also negatively affect the tech billionaire’s business: for example, after the announcement of 25% tariffs for Canada, Ontario announced the cancellation of the contract with Starlink, Elon’s satellite Internet service.