By Andrea Shalal and Nandita Bose

MIAMI/WASHINGTON Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President

Donald Trump on Wednesday said he has put billionaire Elon Musk

in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, appearing

to contradict the White House over who runs the cost-cutting

program.

The White House said in a court filing on Monday that

Musk's role in the Trump administration was that of a White

House employee and senior adviser to the president, and that he

had no authority over DOGE and was not an employee of the

program.

The White House declared this to a judge in a case filed by

Democratic attorneys general against Musk and DOGE.

Trump appeared to contradict at least part of the White

House assertion on Wednesday.

"I signed an order creating the Department of Government

Efficiency and put a man named Elon Musk in charge," Trump told

an audience of investors and company executives in Miami.

The President has repeatedly talked about Musk as the

functional leader of DOGE, which is not a cabinet-level

department, featuring him in a news conference at the White

House this month to answer questions about the program.

Trump on his first day in office set up the cost-cutting

body in an executive order that did not say who its

"administrator" would be. White House officials this week have

not answered repeated requests to identify the administrator.

DOGE has swept through federal agencies since Trump began

his second term as president last month. Musk, chief executive

of carmaker Tesla, was put in charge of rooting out

what the White House calls wasteful spending as part a dramatic

overhaul of government that has included thousands of job cuts.

Musk has been accused of a host of conflicts of interest

between his business interests and his efforts to cut costs for

the federal government. The White House has said the billionaire

will recuse himself if any conflicts of interest arise.