Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — who unofficially leads the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — may be playing video games at work, according to a new report.
Gaming publication Kotaku reported Friday that the South African centibillionaire who recently ordered federal employees to send him an email justifying their jobs now has a sleek gaming computer in his DOGE office. Musk was previously working out of the West Wing of the White House, but the New York Times reported that he called it a "hovel" and relocated his office to the Secretary of War Suite at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The Obama White House archives describes the Secretary of War Suite as "ten rooms designed by Stephen Decatur Hatch, a prominent New York architect of the late 19th-century" that was "occupied by 18 Secretaries of War until July 1939."
ALSO READ:'Absolutely unconscionable': Ex-Republican demands Trump removed from office after fight
“He installed a gaming computer with a giant, curved screen and blinking LED lights, and decorated his desk with a DOGE sign and a MAGA hat,” the Times reported. “He also had a DOGE T-shirt emblazoned with a quote from one of his favorite movies, Office Space: ‘What would you say you do here?’”
Kotaku's Ethan Gach sized up the "battle station" that New York Times tech reporter Kate Conger posted to Bluesky. Gach wrote that Musk's new PC appeared to have a "high-end graphics card" and possibly a Razer Basilisk gaming mouse. Despite being the world's richest man, gaming experts have criticized his past setups, where the centibllionaire enjoys playing games like Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2.
Musk had previously been accused of paying people to play video games for him in order to top global leaderboards (also known as "account boosting") and in January tech CEO admitted to account boosting, but justified it by insisting the practice was widespread. Though the tech CEO is still an avid gamer: His ex-wife, Canadian singer Grimes (whose real name is Claire Elise Boucher) said in a January tweet that she personally witnessed him rack up several Diablo 4 accomplishments.
"Just for my personal pride, I would like to state that the father of my children was the first [A]merican druid in diablo to clear abattoir of zir and ended that season as best in the USA," Grimes wrote. "He was also ranking in Polytopia, and beat Felix himself at the game. I did observe these things with my own eyes. There are other witnesses who can verify this."
Last week, Musk tweeted that he would soon instruct the Office of Personnel Management to send an email to federal workers asking them what they accomplished the previous week, and that failure to respond would be interpreted as a resignation. Some federal agency heads told their employees they weren't obligated to respond, though employees who worked on the Social Security Administration's customer service hotline were told that they not only had to respond, but that they could walk away from the phones in order to write their "Elon emails."
Click here to read Kotaku's article in full.