The White House is insisting that Elon Musk will recuse himself if he finds conflicts with his financial holdings during his efforts through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump had already answered this question earlier in the week. “He said if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts. “

Trump and ally Musk are working to shrink the federal government during the president’s first weeks in office. They are shuttering agencies, temporarily freezing funding and pushing workers to resign, all while staffers with Musk’s DOGE group infiltrate departments in a stated effort to root out fraud and abuse.

Leavitt said that the DOGE workers had read-only access to information at the Treasury Department.

A movement to protest the early actions of Trump’s administration took off Wednesday, as thousands of demonstrators gathered outside a federal courthouse in Philadelphia and at state capitols in Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Protesters waved signs decrying Trump, Musk, and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society.

During Wednesday’s briefing, Leavitt said she “didn’t have a timeline” for when Americans would see prices fall as a result of Trump’s executive actions.