Elon Musk has infiltrated the government, according to the jargon of the tech sector.
Despite never having been elected to office or confirmed by the Senate for a high-level government position, the billionaire tech magnate has used his position as head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency project, or DOGE, to obtain sensitive federal data in a matter of days in order to advance a broad agenda and possibly cause a constitutional crisis.
Musk has adopted Silicon Valley’s most infamous propensity to act quickly and forcefully in an attempt to gain control of federal agencies’ computer networks and organizational structures. Similar to his 2022 corporate takeover of Twitter, he has enlisted a team to evaluate specifics such office building leases, budget line items, vendor contracts, and staff performance with the declared goal of drastically cutting the company.
With the support of Trump and a group of engineers as young as 19, Musk has used an unprecedented set of bureaucratic ploys to demand and gain access to private government data and the Treasury Department’s payment system.
In the Trump administration’s attempt to reduce the size of the federal government, many Democrats and some Republicans are deeply concerned that Musk and his staff are operating covertly, without accountability, and possibly in violation of the law because they are not government employees and are not subject to the same ethics and regulations as federal employees.
According to a Trump executive order dated January 20, DOGE is an office inside the Executive Office of the President. A White House official claims that Musk has been designated as a special government employee. Although he has more access because it is a temporary employment, he also avoids some of the disclosure requirements that apply to full-time government workers.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, one of DOGE’s targets, shut down its headquarters on Monday in preparation for a complete shutdown. Musk has stated on X that he intends to cut or restructure the Education Department and the Government Accountability Office. His DOGE also employs people at the Treasury Department, which handles government bill payment.
According to NBC News, an individual connected to Musk’s SpaceX is serving as an adviser to the FBI director. In response to Musk’s Twitter shakeup, the White House Office of Personnel Management has given federal employees the opportunity to accept buyouts or postponed resignations.
Due to a nearly complete embargo on foreign aid, USAID’s security officials were placed on administrative leave, and over 1,000 employees and contractors were laid off or placed on furlough.According to NBC News, they attempted to bar DOGE staff from accessing secure networks on Saturday. According to accounts, at least a few DOGE personnel lacked adequate security clearances.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate from New York, claimed that Musk was running a shadow government that jeopardized all government services.
You can be certain that DOGE will target another organization tomorrow if they attack USAID today. Perhaps it will be the IRS, the Postal Service, or even the Social Security Administration. “I said.”
Musk did not reply to an email requesting an interview on Monday.
In social media posts, Musk has openly pondered cutting federal jobs, canceling contracts, stopping payments, or selectively releasing records to support his claims of waste, but it was unclear what he and his DOGE team intended to do with their access to sensitive data, including Treasury records of all government payments. He has already employed this strategy, selectively releasing internal Twitter documents following his acquisition of the business on the grounds that the previous management had been politically biased.
Since Trump and Musk have disregarded not just the authority of Congress itself but also career civil officials, many Democrats and even some Republicans claim that the attempted unilateral reform of the federal system is illegal.
Brian Riedl, a former Senate Republican staffer and current senior scholar at the conservative Manhattan Institute, stated that there could be a constitutional crisis. He expressed his worry that Musk’s authority is unbridled in a phone interview.
He added that someone with Elon Musk’s level of influence ought to be confirmed by the Senate. Some accountability to the voters and Congress is required.
Musk was breaking the law, according to Senate Appropriations Committee vice chair Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington.
At a news conference Monday at the Capitol, she said, “An unelected, unaccountable billionaire with vast conflicts of interest, close ties to China, and an indiscreet ax to grind against perceived enemies is hijacking our nation’s most sensitive financial data systems and its checkbook so that he can illegally block funds to our constituents based on the slightest whim or wildest conspiracy.”
Musk’s main example of alleged government waste is the questionable assertion that $50 million in taxpayer funds were used to purchase condoms that were shipped to the Gaza Strip. Last week, the Associated Press reported that the assertion was unsupported by any proof.
Additionally, he has functioned primarily in secret, hiding not just the identities of recently hired government personnel who assist him in making choices, but also the specifics of those judgments and the purported legal authority that he is acting under. Musk accused DOGE staff of violating the law on Monday when individuals started publishing their names online.
In a statement on Xlate Monday, Edward Martin, the Trump-appointed acting U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., stated that he was ready to bring charges against anyone who were attacking DOGE personnel.
“We also have our prosecutors preparing,” he said, adding that “our preliminary review of the evidence presented to us indicates that certain individuals and/or groups have committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting DOGE employees.” Martin vowed in a public letter to Musk earlier Monday to take legal action against anyone who threatens your personnel or obstructs your work.
Musk claims to have worked through the weekend, and his social media posts show that he is putting in unusually long hours. He has admitted to several people that he sleeps in DOGE’s headquarters, according to a wired story published last week.
Although DOGE is not a formal agency established by Congress, Musk has more clout with Trump than the majority of Cabinet members. The moniker for Musk’s endeavor, DOGE, is a playful allusion to volatile digital money.
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, seemed surprised early Monday at how quickly he had gained power in Washington.
Despite its comical name, he stated in an audio-only event on X, “I think DOGE will have a very serious and significant impact on government waste and fraud and abuse, which is really astonishing.”
Trump promised on Monday that Musk’s actions will be closely monitored by the White House.
Elon cannot and will not do anything without our consent, and we will grant it when it is appropriate. In the Oval Office on Monday, he told reporters, “Where it isn’t appropriate, we won’t.”
However, DOGE faces unusual questions, particularly in relation to the Constitution: Members of Congress have power over the country’s checkbook and are responsible for drafting spending bills. Department heads and cabinet members must be confirmed by the Senate.
When questioned Monday about Musk’s possible financial conflicts of interest, Trump responded, “We won’t let him go near it where we think there’s a conflict or a problem.”
Musk is subject to ethics and conflict-of-interest rules that are typically less stringent than those governing full-time government employees since he is a special federal employee in the Trump administration. In addition to being the owner of several other innovative businesses, such as X, xAI, and Neuralink, he continues to hold full-time positions as the CEO of two significant enterprises, SpaceX and Tesla.
In contrast to outside advisers or volunteers, the Trump administration has not released a list of DOGE workers or even disclosed the proportion of full-time staff members. Six young guys between the ages of 19 and 24 were named by Wired on Sunday, claiming to be employed by DOGE.
According to a copy of the email obtained by NBC News, Gavin Kliger, a DOGE employee, sent out an email early Monday alerting all USAID staff that the headquarters will be closed to the majority of them. According to his LinkedIn page, he received his degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020. A request for comment Monday was not immediately answered by him.
Musk has boasted about his employees, comparing them to ancient Greek heroes and describing them as some of the best software programmers in the world.
On Sunday, he remarked on X that it doesn’t take many Spartans to win fights.
Other components of DOGE’s work, including as the number of job cutbacks it may have suggested or triggered and any halts to congressionally approved spending it may have urged, are also not being openly disclosed. Because it is unclear how someone outside the government might verify some of the measures Musk is giving, such the value of cutbacks, it may be challenging to even quantify the impact of DOGE. (Last week, Musk stated that DOGE was reducing the deficit by roughly $1 billion each day, but he did not elaborate. He later expressed cautious optimism that the deficit would reach $4 billion per day.)
Musk stated on X on Monday that 18F, a minor government office devoted to technology, had been eliminated, but he gave no further explanation. Launched during the Obama administration, the 18F office reported completing 455 digital initiatives last year, including helping to build the well-liked Direct File project for free tax filing and updating the U.S. Forest Service’s online permit procedure.
Over the weekend, Musk called government workersthe opposing teamand taunted them for not working over the weekend.