President Trump’s first Cabinet meeting will include one notable administration figure who is not in the Cabinet.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said during a press briefing on Tuesday that Elon Musk would attend the Cabinet meeting. 

“Elon, considering he is working alongside the president and our cabinet secretaries … will be in attendance tomorrow just to talk about DOGE’s efforts,” Ms. Leavitt said.

The news that Mr. Musk will be in attendance comes as there has been confusion around his role at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and a memo that was sent out by the cost-cutting operation telling federal employees to share a list of their accomplishments in the last week or say goodbye to their jobs.

Several federal agencies, such as the FBI and State Department, told their employees not to comply with the memo. The Office of Professional Management also told federal employees that the request for information about their accomplishments is voluntary.

During Tuesday’s press briefing, a CNN reporter, Jeff Zeleny, noted the memo reportedly surprised some department heads and asked, “Will there be a give and take tomorrow at the Cabinet meeting? Is Elon Musk or the president open to any type of dialogue about who is actually in charge of the chain of command of these workers?”

“I would reject the premise of your question, Jeff…Everybody is working as one team and the president respects the decisions of the Cabinet secretaries to tell their staff to respond to that email,” Ms. Leavitt responded. 

She added that the departments that told employees not to respond to the email asking for explanations of what employees accomplished did so due to national security concerns about the possibility that sensitive information would be released.

The decision to include Mr. Musk in the Cabinet meeting also comes amid questions about the nature of his position in the White House. 

In a February 17 filing, the White House said Mr. Musk is not an employee of DOGE and has “no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.”