Upon his reelection, President-elect Donald Trump tapped Tesla (TSLA) CEO and vocal supporter Elon Musk to co-lead a proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Vivek Ramaswamy. The agency would aid in cutting down the government's excess spending and overregulation. Could there be a conflict of interest in giving an industry titan such as Musk this much authority?

Columbia Law School professor Richard Briffault explains the expectations from the public and lawmakers if this DOGE is formalized as an agency under the second Trump administration.

"Musk, in particular, is has been entangled with a half dozen or more federal agencies. He's in contract with a bunch of them, he is being overseen, [has been] in conflicts about with the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission], with the Labor board, there are environmental issues with some of his activities," Briffault suggests. "So the things that he's proposing could potentially be things that will that may very well be good ideas generally, but could also have a direct personal benefit for him."

As Musk clashes with fellow OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman over his push to make the company for-profit, Briffault explains to Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton the role Musk could have on executive policy, like AI and crypto:

"The fact that they have that kind of influence is something... [that] can really warp the kinds of decisions that a president can make, the things the president can recommend to Congress."

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.