Elon Musk’s DOGE Security Deputized as Federal Agents Despite Lack of ‘Basic Law Enforcement Training’: Report

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Elon Musk’s armed security guards were deputized as federal agents during his time in the Trump administration despite a lack of “basic law enforcement training,” according to a new report.

Members of Musk’s private security team were “deputized as federal agents” last year, allowing them to carry firearms in certain federal buildings, despite some of the guards failing to meet “what the Marshals Service considered to be the basic requirements to be deputized as federal law enforcement,” according to government emails reviewed by NBC News.

“At least some members of his detail needed waivers because they had not successfully completed a ‘basic law enforcement training program’ or did not possess at least one year of law enforcement experience with an agency that had general arrest authority,” reported NBC News.

The requirement was then waived by U.S. Marshals official Rich Kelly, according to NBC News, citing an email on the matter.

Musk served as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump and as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) until May 2025, when the billionaire engaged in a public feud with the president, taking aim at Trump’s former relationship with the late serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Towards the end of the year, Musk appeared to have mended his relationship with Trump, even joining the president and First Lady Melania Trump for a “lovely dinner” in January – just a few months after Musk called Trump’s Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy “gay.”

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