In the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have reportedly gained access to major parts of the U.S. government’s payment systems – including systems that affect Social Security and Medicare payments – while federal workers and government officials scramble to respond.
DOGE, an unofficial “department” that Trump has announced as part of the U.S. Digital Service, is ostensibly tasked with cutting government spending. Musk has turned that mission into a widespread gutting of federal agencies, including offering federal employees a month-long paid furlough called “deferred retirement.” But the situation escalated further over the weekend, when Musk and his associates pushed out civil servants who refused to access sensitive data and computer systems.
The news began on Friday with the departure of a senior Treasury official. David Lebrick announced his resignation after clashing with Musk’s surrogates over access to the payment system that pays trillions of dollars in federal employee salaries, Social Security and Medicare, The Washington Post reported. On Saturday, The New York Times reported that Musk now has read-only access to the system, giving him greater insight and potential control over government spending – and likely access to your Social Security number.
Musk spent much of the weekend criticizing alleged “illegal payments” to charities and accusing career Treasury officials, without evidence, of “breaking the law every hour and every day by approving payments that are fraudulent or do not comply with funding laws passed by Congress.” (The department’s job is to facilitate the vast number of payments that are vetted by other agencies.)
Career civil servants of the Office of Personnel Management soon found themselves locked out of the agency’s computer system that stores personal data of federal employees, Reuters reported on Sunday. Unnamed agency officials attributed these actions to Musk’s assistants.
OPM spokeswoman McLaurin Pinover told The Verge that the Reuters report was not accurate, but did not elaborate. Representatives of the Treasury Department, the U.S. Digital Service, and the U.S. Agency for International Development did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the recent reports.
It’s not entirely clear who Musk’s alleged confidants are, but Wired reports that at least a few of the engineers helping him with his government takeover are barely out of college.
Trump has had little comment on Musk’s actions. Speaking to reporters on Sunday at Joint Base Andrews Airfield, according to Fox News, the president said Musk is “doing a good job,” although he added that “sometimes we’re not going to agree with him and we’re not going to go where he wants to go, but I think he’s doing a great job. He’s a smart guy, very smart, and he’s very interested in reducing the budget of our federal government.”
Musk, in particular, has spoken out against USAID, calling it a “criminal organization.” On Monday, he said that he and Trump sought to completely shut down the agency without resorting to their legal authority, NBC News reported. Several Democratic lawmakers opposed Musk’s attempt to shut down the agency and said only Congress could make such a statement, vowing to fight the takeover attempt and calling it a constitutional crisis. “Elon, if you want to run AIDS, run away from Trump and go to the Senate, and good luck getting approved,” said Rep. Jerry Connolly (D-VA).
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said that Musk’s business interests are at the heart of the Trump administration’s motivation behind these changes. “Let’s not hide why this is happening,” Murphy said. “Elon Musk is making billions of dollars from his business with China, and China is welcoming these actions today. There is no doubt that the billionaire class that is now trying to take over our government is doing so out of self-interest.” Murphy adds that Musk’s actions are a “smokescreen” to “create the illusion that they’re saving money” to pass a significant corporate tax cut.
Musk is seeking unprecedented access to government systems while running several companies – including Tesla, SpaceX and X – that have a stake in various government policies and have claims against other private companies. Over the weekend, X expanded its antitrust lawsuit to include Lego, Nestlé, and Pinterest.
Senate members. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) demanded that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant respond to reports of Musk’s access to the Treasury’s payment system. Protests began to appear outside federal buildings, including on Sunday, when, according to DC Media Group, protesters tried to block access to OPM.
Despite this, some anonymous Reddit users who identified themselves as government employees said they planned to continue working more or less as usual. “I’m going to keep doing my job,” one user wrote in a thread about how to cope with the situation. “Put on your headphones and don’t worry,” replies another. Another suggests: “put your head down, eyes and ears open”.
