“… Musk has also shown an interest in the General Services Administration, according to people familiar with the matter. Musk wants to see changes at the GSA’s real-estate division and hopes the agency will streamline the way it sells unused government buildings and improve the contract process, according to people briefed on his thinking. One of the people added that DOGE officials have discussed the idea of an internal network to track GSA-related contracts and spending deals better.
… After Trump signed a day-one executive order granting widespread pardons to those convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill, members of Musk’s team went to the D.C. jail to make sure all of the prisoners were released, according to people familiar with the matter.
“Elon Musk knew about this and was the mastermind behind it, in a number of respects,” Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison for the Justice Department, said outside the D.C. jail the night of the executive order.
…Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, publicly credited Vought with the original idea of the memo ordering a pause on funding for federal grant programs. The OMB freeze memo was later rescinded by the agency after a federal judge paused the order’s implementation. Another federal judge on Friday
blocked the plan, calling it unconstitutional.
The public finger-pointing by White House officials coincided with a behind-the-scenes scramble regarding the funding-freeze memo. OMB officials drafted the memo, and the final document was released without being shown to some White House advisers, including Will Scharf, White House staff secretary, according to people familiar with the matter. The memo set off a firestorm in Congress and across Washington, with lawmakers claiming that constituents were shut out of Medicaid portals after the document was released.
…Vought has been clear that he doesn’t believe Congress should have full control of the purse when it comes to federal spending, despite a 1974 law that limits the White House’s ability to claw back money appropriated by Congress, leaving him with potentially broad authority if he is confirmed as OMB chief.
In January, he told the Senate Budget Committee that he thinks the 1974 Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional. “The president ran on that view. That’s his view, and I agree with it,” Vought told the committee. …”