Overview
- The White House declined Elon Musk’s proposal to fund Transportation Security Administration salaries, citing legal issues linked to his companies’ federal contracts.
- The U.S. Office of Government Ethics says private individuals cannot pay government employees directly.
- Officials discussed whether Musk could donate to the Treasury’s general fund, but no lawful way to route private money to TSA paychecks has been set up.
- TSA operations remain under strain as agents missed pay in mid March and reported higher absences and more than 480 departures, with some travelers waiting over four hours at checkpoints.
- President Trump had praised the idea earlier, saying he loved it, before aides publicly ruled it out on legal grounds.